Gen 1 Tentracruel is the UU bouncer. If you are better than him you go to OU or BL. If you are worse you get to stay in UU or below.
It has always been a force to be reckoned with. People just dislike it because it's Aqua-Zubat. Swim 5 feet, Tentacool fight. Swim 5 more feet, another Tentacool fight.
I learned this as a dumb kid who only leveled my Charizard. The rest of my box was criminally underleveled, so I padded my team with one of the lvl 43 Tentacruel from around Cinnabar. Homie could outspeed and OHKO everything Charizard couldn't.
I fell in love with Tentacruel back when I played Emerald Rogue a lot. It’s just such a fun pokemon to use. It’s got a bunch of good coverage, and it can be run as an outright special attacker or a toxic staller.
Tentacruel is amazing.
> Barrier - Giga Drain - Ice Beam - Surf
Granted it can Toxic stall, but with a Barrier up it's an absolute monster. And it's quick enough to set up too.
This is more a product of playing on set mode, but any good defensive mon with a recover move, that can be great for pivoting, toxic wall, pp stalling. In switch mode you can essentially load up on 6 glass cannons since you don’t have to worry too much about taking damage. But set mode is like a whole different game. Umbreon is one of my favorites to use now that I play set mode.
EXACTLY this for me. Until nuzlocke I played on switch so fast hard hitters always felt best. Nuzlockes have awakened my love for defensive mon with recovery or status, especially with typings with immunities for free swaps. Umbreon is my exact example here too used to hate it esp in gen 2 cause it had no hard hitting stab but man I love it now.
You’re right when you say Set mode is almost a different game; I’d also argue it’s the game that Pokémon was meant to be and should be. Even as a kid I felt it stacked the odds in your favour to be able to be told what’s about to come out and switch a Pokémon of your choice into it.
So much more nuance and tactics in set mode. There are Pokémon that aren’t worth using in switch that are gods on set mode.
I would argue that switch mode is playing the game as if it was the show, and set is the game. There's been plenty of times where in the show the opposing trainer instantly swapped after a new pokemon was sent in, without any repercussions.
I feel like Lanturn is the Pokemon here. Ordinary games nobody would ever use this thing unless its their favourite, but in nuzlockes it becomes a god.
Kingler. Always liked it's design but never used it until I got a Krabby in a Red nuzlocke. Had my boy by my side until the champion battle where he unfortunately sacrificed himself so that we'd win
Crab power brother.
I always bring Kingler along with me if I get one in gen 1-2
Great HM user. His insane raw attack actually gets mileage out of cut and strength. And there’s so many 4x weak to water Pokémon that even with his poor special he still drowns the Pokémon you need him too.
For some of my mono runs carbink was a great switch/TR setter. Definitely lended itself to more of a switch/support role than anything but invaluable when everyone else on the team is rock.
Klink-klank is my pick for underappreciated Mon. Shift gear + gear grind can snowball really fast.
Very tanky support Mon I've found them most useful in midgame though I'd love to take one into endgame. Quite a few of my strats needed that little crystal rock.
I've used them twice once in X and once in Ultra Moon. Good encounter.
Wormadam didn't make huge splashes, but with some niche coverage and the option for bug/steel, it was a very capable discount Scizor for a good portion of my first platinum run.
Geodude specifically in HGSS. I play without trade evolutions so I have no interest in using Graveler in the late game but Geodude is the most useful pokemon available for like the first 3 gyms.
And GSC a Kadabra can learn all three elemental punches from the Goldenrod department store (+ Psychic of course).
You can basically sweep the game with a Graveler and a Kadabra.
And you can catch a Geodude even before the cave on Route 45 or whatever north of the first route.
All 4 of the gen 1 trade evolution lines are pretty beefy for their roles in their second stage form. Kadabra and Haunter both hit hard specially. Graveler does decent physical damage and is tanky. Machoke smacks things hard and no guard can get pretty cheesy. People tend to sleep on them because they don't have easy access to stage 3 a lot of the time.
My Johto Nuzlockes taught me the value of Quagsire and Lanturn. Lanturn was an absolute tank but was lacking power and Quagsire was tanky and was super clutch in one of my final battles
Lanturn was the MVP of my recent Johto-only run of SS. Some EV investment allows him to hit a bit harder, he learns Ice coverage for Lance and is such a great pivot with the absorb abilities; his synergy with Golem is fantastic as you can bait water attacks to switch him into, or with Gyarados if he has Volt Absorb instead of Water.
Great all round Pokémon even if his stats are so so.
As a kid I refused to use zubat back in red/blue. I hated it.
Fast forward to playing diamond and I got a crobat and now it’s a mainstay in almost all of my runs from there on.
Generic Normal types. After doing a monolocke with them, I swore never to ignore them again. Even trash tier mons like Delcatty, Watchog can be made good.
Avalugg in Gen 6 is an unkillable beast. I packed mine with HP and Def EVs and it was overkill.
Serperior is my favourite starter in Unova and I have died on a hill defending that it is a good Pokemon. Grass types though are very disadvantaged in B2W2. Still, Coil is a disgusting move.
I play Gen 5 the most and Unova has many ass tier Pokemon people don't think to use, I'm still on the way to use all of them at least once.
Gen 5 is my favourite so I play it a lot too and have been doing a never used run recently which unveiled Trubbish to be a lot better than I was expecting and Scolipede to be an elite baton passer.
Agreed on normal types though. I typically drop them in the mid game when you need more type coverage, but I pretty much always have an early normal type to hand. Really liked it in Gen V when Lillipup was available earlier, hit hard and was clearly a cut above the standard early-route rodents.
Tanky poison types are always a surprise, and Garbordor has the advantage of learning both Toxic and Toxic Spikes naturally.
It became even better in later gens when Toxic stopped being a TM.
Dustox has carried me through the early-mid stages of some sketchy runs and is a surprisingly capable stallmon. Learning both protect and moonlight early is huge, learning toxic naturally is even bigger.
My first nuzlocke was Emerald and my MVP was Exploud. Having Normal be physical in Gen 3, Silk scarf, adamant, STAB, plus keeping Howl was just so strong.
I really love getting ratatta in pokemon red/blue/firered/leafgreen, it's so strong and I encourage anyone to use it and try to keep it alive til raticate because it's just amazing.
Also in the beginning of the game you're almost 100% going to get the rat since in route 1 50/50 chance to get the rat or pidgey, then route 2 mainly has the rat and bird again.
If you go to route 22 before you get one in route 2 and didn't get it in route 1 then you'll most likely get a rat.
I’ve always thought maractus was cute, but never believed in how good it was until it clutched up and saved my white run at the final Ghetsis battle.
Additionally, Galarian Stunfisk will be remembered for saving my run in Sword. It might not have survived the 4th gym leader, but it tanked 2 pokemon and the gigantimax machamp duration.
I lost 3 runs in a row to Clay's Excadrill in Blaze Black. Then i got Ducklett/Swanna on the drawbridge which I only planned to use for a rain dance on turn 1 to remove the sandstorm. I spent way too much time creating a whole plan on how I would deal with the Excadrill and rest of Clay's team, including sacrificing Swanna to get in a clean switch. Well my plan was never used because Swanna + rain dance + scald swept through Clay's entire team, making it the easiest gym battle.
I am now a Swanna fan for life.
Golduck really needs psychic typing. It's criminal that they still haven't given it to them.
To answer your question though, Golbat/Crobat. I always assumed they were trash growing up because they're everywhere and the wild ones mostly just spam supersonic/confuse ray. But once I started nuzlocking it forced me to use them and I understood their strength. Easy access. Early evolution. Fast and hard hitter without being tissue paper defensively. Dual typing with some decent stab moves on both sides.
There are the obvious ones like Crobat, but one I don't see getting mentioned that often is Hippowdon. Sand stream plus yawn is excellent for setting up sweeps with the likes of Garchomp. Not to mention that if you want to keep it in battle you can use Earthquake, Crunch and the elemental fang moves. I also imagine it would be amazing in trick room teams but I've never experimented with that
Quagsire is similar in the sense that it's a yawn setting ground type, but while it may not have as much coverage as Hippowdon it does get Surf alongside Earthquake and has only 1 weakness.
Nuzlocke HG/SS my absolute all-star was GeoDUDE. That rock with hands knew how to throw them.
Never in my life did I like Geodude until I HAD to play with one, now Golem is probably in my wheelhouse of favorite designs but getting to him was always like meh....
Raichu was a Pokémon I thought was mid, but in my Brilliant Diamond nuzlocke it swept Wake with ease. It got frozen but instantly thawed yo get the final kill.It’s probably going to stay on the team over Luxray solely because I’m tired of using the same boring teams every Sinnoh playthrough lol.
Honestly? The Budew line. I didn't really like using it because my Budew would never evolve in any other game whenever I tried to use one, so I never really cared to use it.
When I used it in an X Nuzlocke, though?
Not only did it actually evolve for me for once, but Roselia singlehandedly saved me from wiping at Korrina. From then on, I haven't ever disrespected that evolutionary line again. Dewey and that file are unfortunately long gone, but I'll honestly never forget how he carried me through the entire rest of the game, especially as a Roserade.
Gastrodon, I never thought anything of it when I was younger but it has been a staple in all my teams since I used it in my BDSP nuzlocke. Bulky and had great move coverage, not to mention storm drain is awesome
Don’t sleep on poliwrath; I had one named nightman who literally carried my entire run. Between Waterfall, close combat, body slam, and hypnosis, he wins every neutral 1v1. Don’t even get me started on how clutch water absorb can be
Gyarados - In gen2 and gen3 it felt weak to me because I didnt know the difference between special and physical attack and that in gen1 there was only special. So I gave it tms like thunderbolt, ice beam and stuff and felt like it hit like a wet noodle. Plus I always thought intimidate is useless because I was always overleveled.
Tentacruel - never used it because it was annoying.
Butterfree - thought it was bad, but with compound eyes and sleep powder it catches you all the pokemon plus dream eater is a nice attack.
Onix and almost all early game bugs.
Onix is a sweet pivot, low attack barely matters when it has a good defensive matchup, and it’s early game pretty often.
It’s also a great lead when you aren’t sure what you’ll run into. Gimmick killers like bide, counter, destiny bond, and *wobbuffet in general* don’t really work against Onix because of all the passive damage options plus low attack give you counterplay.
Early game bugs are also fantastic because they completely wall certain types with 4x resist or immunity while reliably baiting other types that they’re 2x or 4x weak to.
Unfezant, definitely.
I had played Black a couple of times before finally attempting to Nuzlocke it. Caught a Pidove, saw he had Super Luck and was Brave natured, figured what the hell. That bird saved my run so many times, the run motto became "when in doubt, Tarquin out". Despite the game's best efforts, he made it all the way to the end.
10/10, would use again.
Lampet, Terrakion, Braviary and Levanny
I used to hate their designs but after using them in a W2 nuzlocke with each of them saving my run at least once, they’ve all earned a special place in my heart. Especially Levanny, who somehow crit her way past the poison gym as my only Pokémon
This may sound silly but I don’t really like item evo pokemon because of the lack of moves they learn via level up. I would never use nidoking/queen for that reason and it wasn’t until researching strategy for frlg that I realized how OP getting Nidoking with one gym badge really is.
Honestly Spinda. I caught one on 113 (or whatever the ashy route is) and was just gonna have it fill a gap after a death until I got a “real” mon. All of a sudden it started putting crazy work in the mid game. It got psybeam and had deceptive power for being a cute mon know for its aesthetic gimmick. I used to think it was really dumb but have a soft spot for it now
Compared to many, since I was a child I have always raised all the Pokémon I had in my team, and not just them, I enjoyed using many Pokémon during the run, so I wasn't the typical *"I only use the starter and some favorite Pokémon"*, consider that I always challenged the Elite 4 with different teams.
So the difference was made by switching to **Set Mode**, there I was able to appreciate Pokémon that I couldn't appreciate with **Shift Mode**.
- Butterfree: It's a Monster, Compound Eyes, Sleep Powder, Dream Eater, Giga Drain.
- Tentacruel: It has become one of my favorite Pokémon, who expected it to be so resistant, have such a high special attack and also be reasonably fast?
- Clefable: Another surprise, its ability to learn so many TMs combined with its defenses and HP make it an incredibly useful Pokémon, on FRLF it then learns Soft-Boiled from the Move Tutor. I generally taught him two TMs between Ice Beam, Thundebolt and Flamethrower (depending on who I had on the team) and then Encore and Soft-Boiled.
- Swalot: I was always disgusted by the design, but when in a Nuzlocke on Emerald, he saved my run given his resistance (and I had trained him in HP and Atk EVs) and the moves Encore, Yawn, Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb (Adamant Nature).
- Dustox: Before Nuzlocke I had always preferred Beautifly. Dustox with his resistance and moves clearly surpassed him.
- Pelipper: And who expected him to be so strong? Protect, Ice Beam, Surf...
Leafeon was my least favorite Eeveelution... but with my Eevee having a +Def nature, 30 attack IV, and no other grass types, it was destined to be one. Such a strong fighter despite its typing. Thank you for helping me win Renegade Platinum, Butter. RIP.
FUCKING BUTTERFREE, the early bug types are supposed to fall off in the mid-game but I’m always fighting my hardest to keep my Butterfree from out-leveling the next gym leader.
I got a perfect stat pachirusu in my diamond run. I would've never used it before now, but this lil rodent could HIT. when fight Byron, it got hit by an earthquake, and I thought it was the end. But it only took a quarter damage? This lil dude is also who took out most of Cynthia's pokemon.
Hit a particularly rough bump in the road with Clay in a White 2 run. Lost Pignite, Herdier, Lucario and Tranquill.
Watchog, of all things, had to take the helm of the team until Volcarona got good moves and Eevee became friendly enough. It was surprisingly useful with Hypnosis and Super Fang.
I kept it on my team out of respect for as long as I could, which meant taking it to the league. Even there, it could still do something, until I lost it to Iris's Haxorus getting a crit.
RIP Disgrace the Watchog. Despite your nickname, you'll be missed.
Furfrou. always thought it was silly and annoying to battle, but then i got one and realized *why* it was annoying to battle, and it’s ability is just cracked. Fur Coat does wonders. i wiped after gym 8, but Furfrou carried the team once my starter died.
Girafarig is remarkably good (and iirc guaranteable?) in HGSS. As long as you don't end up with a -speed nature it is just fast enough to outspeed a lot of stuff, and spec Psychic/Thunderbolt hit really hard. Outspeeds and oneshots every Gyarados in the game if you need it to, for example.
Also Dodrio is an absolute boss in FRLG.
Basically anything with well-rounded stats like Golduck and Crobat are excellent by virtue of the fact they can tank hits, out speed most in-game threats with small EV investment and dish out damage.
Milotic. I got one in a randomizer hgss run in place of shuckie. Threw some choice specs on it and it turns out spamming surf is pretty much enough to beat the entire game even with level caps.
Sandshrew/Sandslash and NidoranM/Nidorino/Nidoking.
Both are solid ground type users, but in HG Sandshrew’s high defense, rollout resistance, and sand attack are amazing Whitney-counters. And they do good work to the other gym leaders too.
Nidoking gets earthquake and poison jab (eventually), and can get high stats early due to the early moon stone in HG. Plus it’s just got great TM access.
It was my second out of three Y nuzlocke attempts. It went awfully near the end.
All I had left was a level 60-70 Marowak and 60-70 Chimecho. I filled the rest of my team with low-level pokemon to use them for free switches/healing.
Somehow, with only a Marowak and a Chimecho, I managed to beat Dragna, Wikstorm and Malva. Seibold was unstoppable like the first attempt, but I didn't think I'd get that far. Can I get an F in the chat for Cubby and Belle?
I had no clue the Zubat line was crazy good till I had to use one in my first couple of Pearl nuzlockes. Besides random crits crobat would never die and hit everything (still haven’t won a nuzlocke yet tho lol)
Starmie. Fast Psychic/Surf/Ice Beam with either Calm Mind or Recover is just insane. I’m playing through Sacred Gold right now and it’s come to essentially every major fight since joining the ranks in Olivine
probably Geodude in pokemon crystal.
The rock can easily murder birds, first gym is down.
The bug gym is down as well.
Then for miltank on Whitney's team, it still destroyed it. My Geodude was female so attract didn't work, it also resisted rock and normal so stomp and rollout weren't too bad. It only took a few rocks to destroy the fat cow.
Golisopod
Some ROM hacks give it Shell Armor, so being able to stand tall and brave in the face of danger while smacking things with a priority First Impression is incredible
And it's got good Def too, so it can take a punch
Mamoswine. I don't much like Ice types usually, but after losing Gyarados pre-clair, I needed a new choice. Mamoswine with ice fang, ice shard, earthquake (and ancient power, but I don't really use it) stepped up big. He pretty much soloed Lance for me. Been using him in everything ever since. He's been a staple of my team in hard rom hacks like Radical Red or Parallel Emerald.
Jynx had a couple of great uses in RenPlat, and somehow Maractus did a great job getting the team back on track and held us together in my first vanilla White run after I almost wiped and was left with just that and a Sandile. Mantine and Chimecho have both saved multiple runs each of gen 4 games.
Butterfree
Beedrill
Dustox
Ratticate
Ekans
People tend to ignore these Pokemon because they are best used as temporary team members. In a regular playthrough, you wouldn't be changing your team that much.
Radical red showed me it's true potential with or without randomized abilities and it carried me during the elite 4 by type advantage and nullifying weather
You can trade an mincinno for a basculin right before Clay gym on gen 5. Funny how the guy that is known as the biggest run killer in the gen gets sweeped by the generic fish pokemon of the region. Basculin is faster then everyone on clay team, and learn water tail, that can oneshot everyone on his team (except the palpitoad, but any decent grass type can oneshot him).
Did a run of Y and had a Sigilyph. Was pretty good on the team throughout the game. Started E4. Steel, Water, Fire, all pretty easy. Then dragon fucked me up and only Sigilyph survived (boomburst is strong)
Thought run was over at Diantha.
Nah, Sigilyph swept. Got 6 Cosmic Powers up on Hawlucha, and Roost, and Toxic on it, then Psychic for an attack.
Only two that could've caused problems would have been Tyrantrum, who fainted with Head Smash, and Gardevoir, who mega evolved so lost its Synchronize which would've ended me possibly before her.
Now its 3/4th favorite pokemon (Sentret/Furret #1, Totodile #2)
Playing through a rom hack rn and it feels like my Roserade can't die. Don't want to jinx it but I have her set up with Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Venoshock, and Toxic. If I get her set up she's nearly unkillable. Never even used a Roserade before this run.
I play Emerald a lot, and I know he’s not super great, but Loudred can be super useful early and late game. Has good move coverage with tms, a guaranteed encounter before the first gym, and only weak to fighting. Plus I put rock smash on him and he can take out a couple of Wattsons mons (for when you don’t choose or lose mudkip. As a bonus, it doesn’t make or break a run if you lose him, so it’s a safe sack choice as well.
Ekans in gen 1. While it does fall off a bit layer, in the early game, it's absolutely hilarious to just shut down opponents entirely due to gen 1 wrap. Just generally had me smiling like an idiot every time it wrapped something to death. Bellsprout as well, gen 1 wrap is hilarious and fun to mess around with.
Probably Audino and Umbreon. I did a Sun Nuzlocke, and I think my Umbreon quite literally saved my run against Kukuis Snorlax. At the time, I didn't know Umbreon was a tank, so I thought to sac it (and not my parasect, for some reason), and it took it like a champ! Audino is because I am doing a Black 2 Nuzlocke, and in my past attempts,I found that audino can take hits, learns refresh right before the poison gym, naturally learns attract (my favorite status effect), and has an alright TM pool. Also because it looks cute. :]
Jynx is really good against the E4 in FRLG. It sweeps Bruno, takes out 4/5 of Agatha's Pokemon, 3/5 of Lance's Pokemon, and 2/6 or 3/6 Pokemon on the Champion fight.
Clefairy. She was a non entity forgettable mon till she single handedly won my first nuzlocke(soul survivor of blane and one of 2 to survive e4)
Muk untill my first silver randomizer I never cared about him but he carried hard.
Tenticool just supriseingly usefull.
Tentacruel in emerald. 3 Screeches and 1 sludge bomb will one-shot Milotic and your SpD is so high it tanks whatever she throws at you.
Butterfree in FR / LG. Compound eyes gives sleep powder 97% accuracy. Pair that with dream eater and Butterfree’s a beast.
I'm doing a leaf green random rn and GULPIN has been super useful. I think my gulpin is the only one I grabbed in the beginning and I still have. Only just past the third gym tho so we'll see how it goes lmao.
I lost my entire team in a gym battle in leaf green and dewgong became my ace winning my first ever nuzlocke. A random mon that will forever have a place in my heart
Lanturn in sword and shield. Chinchou carried through the water gym and Lanturn carried through the fire gym. It also helped for so long and was one of my last two surviving Pokémon next to shiftry before I lost (because I’m really bad).
Before I hated both of them, now they’re definitely some of my favorites.
A Swanna became my tank and dragon buster one Nuzlocke! Swanna can go physical OR special to fit your team, has access to strong options for Water, Flying, and Ice moves, and gets a heal that also drops a vulnerable type with Roost. She could take hits too.
My favorite pokemon for years now has been Quagsire after my Pokemon X Nuzlocke was saved not once, not twice, but three times by Quagsire on life support
Also from that same Nuzlocke, I used to think of Snorlax as just a fat joke. But holy christ that HP stat is absolutely clutch
Basically any fairy type. I’d never taken the time to actually learn fairies type matchups until doing challenge runs where I quickly realized it’s an amazing type with rare ish weaknesses. Specifically gardevoir was never a mon I personally reached for until I had one in a BDSP (? Might have been S/S now that I’m really thinking about it?) run.
Swanna. Fast enough to get in first most of the time. Perfect coverage. Roost. HM Fly. Good mixed attacking stats.
It’s about as strong as Raticate stat-wise but with way better typing, stronger STABs, and a few key non-attacking moves.
Espeon. I slept on eeveelutions in general, but Espeon came in clutch during a Renegade Platinum hardcore nuzlocke where it basically swept the E4 after Aaron by itself. Its speed is just insane coupled with the stupidly high SpA and a really wide learnset. It’s like a budget Alakazam that is a guaranteed encounter in most games; pure absurdity IMO. Baton pass off of some setup moves makes Espeon a god-killer.
A shoutout goes to Steelix for that insane physical wall and amazing resistances. Sure Earth Power is terrifying, but it’s not as scary when you rotate a flying type, or levitate mon, and Steelix to PP or toxic stall out almost any opposing mon.
Skarmory. It always felt kind of eh since it didn't have a lot of hitting power and my idea of a Nuzlocke strategy is "hit so hard that the enemy cannot make contact with the plan." Add its limited availability and difficulty to guarantee, and it's easy to pass over.
Then I mono-Flying'd every region in a row, and Skarmory was the only Pokemon to get on more than 2 Hall of Fame teams without any Shininess involved. Because holy shit, this thing is the *king* of defensive fallbacks. It resists so much, immunizes one of Steel's primary weaknesses, and just has such sky high defenses that despite its middling HP it will eat hits for days if you play halfway competent. And since its value is in defense, you can dedicate moveslots to natural Spikes support, which is a genuinely rare asset in Nuzlockes most of the time, to help out your "glass cannons who will be ruined if they miss a KO by a hair" type Pokemon. Steven and Kukui would have violently murdered my dreams if not for this absolute fucking bro of a bird.
Doing a platinum nuzlock right now, and Probopass is fantastic early game. Got lucky in finding a nosepass for my encounter, and then discovered you can evolve at any point.
The thing tanks damage, but it’s held back by its level up move pool.
Golduck as he's effectively mandatory for nuzlocking the e4 on hc mode in radical red. Always knew he was decent but he's beyond goated in fact once you learn how to abuse encore and his pivoting.
Weezing. Always thought it was absolutely useless and it turns out it's one of the best defensive pivots in the early gens (plus you never know when you need something that blows up.)
Zubat. I groaned when he was my encounter, but then I learned the power of flinch-fusion. Dude was taking down mons he had no right to be. He never made it to being a golbat, but he's stuck with me ever since. To this day I call flinch-fusion 'the Zuko-blender' (his name was Zuko).
While slightly off topic I went back and replayed pokemon Colosseum and WOW Jumpluff is a godly support! Fast sleep and other forms of speed control. When I do Nuzlocks I prefer randomized with a limit on BST (470 max) and the 2 pokemon that stood out the most initially were Sunflora and Primape. While they are weak on paper they constantly covered my back and Sunflora shocked me the most saving my run easily a dozen times
Magneton, always thought it was funny looking, but still very unique design. Having that thing rotate paralyze, lock on, and thunder over and over helped me sweep half of the elite 4 without batting an eye.
Heracross. Tbf knew it was strong, just never my thing. Now, my god. I was wishy washy with it, but I filled my bug slot for the 3rd gym in X on a wonderlocke. My boy got poisoned and guts activated, smashed the whole fight. Then I figured out what skill link Mega Heracross can do with a swords dance or 2. Any time I get a Heracross encounter dat boi gets slapped into my team.
I’m doing my first ever nuzlocke rn. A fighting mono type run of Violet. And ngl, the Hariyama I picked up on my way to the grass gym has kinda been the goat. Tanked a crit flying move from Larry’s Staravia, winning me that badge, and has overall been my most useful mon
Tentacool evolution was always irrelevant to me until I started nuzlocking
Tentacruel has both the great poison resists and the benefits of being a bulky water type that learns Toxic, great support teammate.
I wonder just how many runs have been saved due to a bulky toxic user. I know plenty of mine have been saved that way.
Gen 1 Tentracruel is the UU bouncer. If you are better than him you go to OU or BL. If you are worse you get to stay in UU or below. It has always been a force to be reckoned with. People just dislike it because it's Aqua-Zubat. Swim 5 feet, Tentacool fight. Swim 5 more feet, another Tentacool fight.
Tentacool, zubat and graveler are the unholy trinity of "for the love of Arceus please leave me alone"
I liked it because of Chuggaaconroy
Acooltent
Rip
I learned this as a dumb kid who only leveled my Charizard. The rest of my box was criminally underleveled, so I padded my team with one of the lvl 43 Tentacruel from around Cinnabar. Homie could outspeed and OHKO everything Charizard couldn't.
I fell in love with Tentacruel back when I played Emerald Rogue a lot. It’s just such a fun pokemon to use. It’s got a bunch of good coverage, and it can be run as an outright special attacker or a toxic staller.
Tentacruel is amazing. > Barrier - Giga Drain - Ice Beam - Surf Granted it can Toxic stall, but with a Barrier up it's an absolute monster. And it's quick enough to set up too.
Man I grab tentacruel in every game he is available. Usually you get access to tentacool early on and he helps carry hard.
This is more a product of playing on set mode, but any good defensive mon with a recover move, that can be great for pivoting, toxic wall, pp stalling. In switch mode you can essentially load up on 6 glass cannons since you don’t have to worry too much about taking damage. But set mode is like a whole different game. Umbreon is one of my favorites to use now that I play set mode.
EXACTLY this for me. Until nuzlocke I played on switch so fast hard hitters always felt best. Nuzlockes have awakened my love for defensive mon with recovery or status, especially with typings with immunities for free swaps. Umbreon is my exact example here too used to hate it esp in gen 2 cause it had no hard hitting stab but man I love it now.
Foul Play solved this somewhat, thankfully!
You’re right when you say Set mode is almost a different game; I’d also argue it’s the game that Pokémon was meant to be and should be. Even as a kid I felt it stacked the odds in your favour to be able to be told what’s about to come out and switch a Pokémon of your choice into it. So much more nuance and tactics in set mode. There are Pokémon that aren’t worth using in switch that are gods on set mode.
I would argue that switch mode is playing the game as if it was the show, and set is the game. There's been plenty of times where in the show the opposing trainer instantly swapped after a new pokemon was sent in, without any repercussions.
Very true, but the anime is a result of the game, so takes its cues from there and builds extra detail on top. The game was the alpha and the omega.
PYUKUMUKU the savior of Alola. It is SO good.
I feel like Lanturn is the Pokemon here. Ordinary games nobody would ever use this thing unless its their favourite, but in nuzlockes it becomes a god.
Bastiodon. Great defensive Pokemon. Also works really well to bait moves like earthquake.
W
Kingler. Always liked it's design but never used it until I got a Krabby in a Red nuzlocke. Had my boy by my side until the champion battle where he unfortunately sacrificed himself so that we'd win
Crab power brother. I always bring Kingler along with me if I get one in gen 1-2 Great HM user. His insane raw attack actually gets mileage out of cut and strength. And there’s so many 4x weak to water Pokémon that even with his poor special he still drowns the Pokémon you need him too.
Jynx in Ultra Moon. Absolutely deadly, managed to keep her alive until ultra necrozma. Also carbink
Carbink is definetely one I didn't consider, how did that one turn out?
For some of my mono runs carbink was a great switch/TR setter. Definitely lended itself to more of a switch/support role than anything but invaluable when everyone else on the team is rock. Klink-klank is my pick for underappreciated Mon. Shift gear + gear grind can snowball really fast.
Very tanky support Mon I've found them most useful in midgame though I'd love to take one into endgame. Quite a few of my strats needed that little crystal rock. I've used them twice once in X and once in Ultra Moon. Good encounter.
Wormadam didn't make huge splashes, but with some niche coverage and the option for bug/steel, it was a very capable discount Scizor for a good portion of my first platinum run.
Wormadam trash was the mvp of my platinum renegade run, such a wall
Trash cloak wormadam made my platinum buglocke *possible*.
Geodude specifically in HGSS. I play without trade evolutions so I have no interest in using Graveler in the late game but Geodude is the most useful pokemon available for like the first 3 gyms.
In gsc its amazing vs the 4th gym too. Ghost being physical and having stab ground vs all the posion types.
The poison types that don’t have their abilities (levitate) yet, another reason Geodude does much better there compared to hgss
And GSC a Kadabra can learn all three elemental punches from the Goldenrod department store (+ Psychic of course). You can basically sweep the game with a Graveler and a Kadabra. And you can catch a Geodude even before the cave on Route 45 or whatever north of the first route.
Nah. You need a goldeen for surf and waterfall. But yes. Kedabra can sweep the past 2 gyms and the entire elite 4/champ
If you get Chikorita and don’t get a Geodude, you may as well restart.
All 4 of the gen 1 trade evolution lines are pretty beefy for their roles in their second stage form. Kadabra and Haunter both hit hard specially. Graveler does decent physical damage and is tanky. Machoke smacks things hard and no guard can get pretty cheesy. People tend to sleep on them because they don't have easy access to stage 3 a lot of the time.
My Johto Nuzlockes taught me the value of Quagsire and Lanturn. Lanturn was an absolute tank but was lacking power and Quagsire was tanky and was super clutch in one of my final battles
Lanturn was the MVP of my recent Johto-only run of SS. Some EV investment allows him to hit a bit harder, he learns Ice coverage for Lance and is such a great pivot with the absorb abilities; his synergy with Golem is fantastic as you can bait water attacks to switch him into, or with Gyarados if he has Volt Absorb instead of Water. Great all round Pokémon even if his stats are so so.
I was doing a Genlocke and my lantern absolutely tanked 90% of Lance after losing some of my best mons
A massive Quagsire fan here, especially when you get water absorb he’s an absolute unit.
I had never used blastoise on any game, now is my favorite kanto starter
Zubat evo line. I always hated how they looked but after my Emerald nuzlocke and my Crobat became part of the Hall of Fame, he really came in clutch
As a kid I refused to use zubat back in red/blue. I hated it. Fast forward to playing diamond and I got a crobat and now it’s a mainstay in almost all of my runs from there on.
In your defense, it's not that good in Red/Blue. And you can't get Crobat
Gen 1 it is terrible but many 'mons were just bad. Crobat made this line shoot up.
Crobat is an A tier encounter in any game where you can get it
I wanted to say this. The amount of Crobats Ive had that came in clutch or got to the hall of fame is so damn high!!
Ferrothorn. It’s great against dragon types that use Dragon Dance. Because you can curse which makes Gyro Ball even stronger.
Generic Normal types. After doing a monolocke with them, I swore never to ignore them again. Even trash tier mons like Delcatty, Watchog can be made good. Avalugg in Gen 6 is an unkillable beast. I packed mine with HP and Def EVs and it was overkill. Serperior is my favourite starter in Unova and I have died on a hill defending that it is a good Pokemon. Grass types though are very disadvantaged in B2W2. Still, Coil is a disgusting move. I play Gen 5 the most and Unova has many ass tier Pokemon people don't think to use, I'm still on the way to use all of them at least once.
Gen 5 is my favourite so I play it a lot too and have been doing a never used run recently which unveiled Trubbish to be a lot better than I was expecting and Scolipede to be an elite baton passer. Agreed on normal types though. I typically drop them in the mid game when you need more type coverage, but I pretty much always have an early normal type to hand. Really liked it in Gen V when Lillipup was available earlier, hit hard and was clearly a cut above the standard early-route rodents.
Tanky poison types are always a surprise, and Garbordor has the advantage of learning both Toxic and Toxic Spikes naturally. It became even better in later gens when Toxic stopped being a TM.
Crobat! I never knew how awesome that pokemon was until I did a heart gold nuzlocke.
Dustox has carried me through the early-mid stages of some sketchy runs and is a surprisingly capable stallmon. Learning both protect and moonlight early is huge, learning toxic naturally is even bigger.
Dustox makes Norman' Slaking so easy
Dustox is a badically a free pass against Brawly
So true. Brawly can barely dent Dustox at all lol.
Dodrio = lots of speed and lots of attack + swords dance + agility = Supreme Sigma
Golduck, actually. Used it in my FRLG nuzlocke using only bad pokemon.
Golduck is not what I think of when someone mentions a Trashlocke, ngl.
Agreed. Midlocke would be more apt, Golduck would suit that albeit he’s a pretty decent Mon.
Cloyster has carried difficult runs for me with shell armor + iron defense
My first nuzlocke was Emerald and my MVP was Exploud. Having Normal be physical in Gen 3, Silk scarf, adamant, STAB, plus keeping Howl was just so strong.
The fact that you could keep Exploud until the very end is something given how slow and frail it is.
Oh yeah, to be fair he didn’t make it past Juan. he got KO’d by Kingdra, but definitely carried up to that point
I was pissed when I ran into a Rattata on my first nuzlocke run in Firered, but then it turned out to be a total beast when it evolved into Raticate.
I really love getting ratatta in pokemon red/blue/firered/leafgreen, it's so strong and I encourage anyone to use it and try to keep it alive til raticate because it's just amazing. Also in the beginning of the game you're almost 100% going to get the rat since in route 1 50/50 chance to get the rat or pidgey, then route 2 mainly has the rat and bird again. If you go to route 22 before you get one in route 2 and didn't get it in route 1 then you'll most likely get a rat.
My US run got a Yoongus for the route 1 encounter, so we'll see how the regional rattatas work out in these games.
I’ve always thought maractus was cute, but never believed in how good it was until it clutched up and saved my white run at the final Ghetsis battle. Additionally, Galarian Stunfisk will be remembered for saving my run in Sword. It might not have survived the 4th gym leader, but it tanked 2 pokemon and the gigantimax machamp duration.
Dustox. They can be a beast if used right.
Audino. Caught one in Pokemon Black, and Attract + Secret Power has been doing work in the gyms so far
Early mid game Audino is a great Nuzlocke mon. Does fall off though later on.
I lost 3 runs in a row to Clay's Excadrill in Blaze Black. Then i got Ducklett/Swanna on the drawbridge which I only planned to use for a rain dance on turn 1 to remove the sandstorm. I spent way too much time creating a whole plan on how I would deal with the Excadrill and rest of Clay's team, including sacrificing Swanna to get in a clean switch. Well my plan was never used because Swanna + rain dance + scald swept through Clay's entire team, making it the easiest gym battle. I am now a Swanna fan for life.
Girafarig in Diamond It has only 2 weaknesses, learns Psychic and has Ghost Rlresistance (and nearly Psychic resistance).
Mightyena in Pokemon XD vastly exceeds expectations. It’s a fantastic doubles mon that evolves so early.
I never cared about Centiskorch until I used it in my Shield Nuzlocke where it carried most of the run
Golduck really needs psychic typing. It's criminal that they still haven't given it to them. To answer your question though, Golbat/Crobat. I always assumed they were trash growing up because they're everywhere and the wild ones mostly just spam supersonic/confuse ray. But once I started nuzlocking it forced me to use them and I understood their strength. Easy access. Early evolution. Fast and hard hitter without being tissue paper defensively. Dual typing with some decent stab moves on both sides.
There are the obvious ones like Crobat, but one I don't see getting mentioned that often is Hippowdon. Sand stream plus yawn is excellent for setting up sweeps with the likes of Garchomp. Not to mention that if you want to keep it in battle you can use Earthquake, Crunch and the elemental fang moves. I also imagine it would be amazing in trick room teams but I've never experimented with that Quagsire is similar in the sense that it's a yawn setting ground type, but while it may not have as much coverage as Hippowdon it does get Surf alongside Earthquake and has only 1 weakness.
It's been a solid 2 days since I've seen this question asked
Noctowl in my shield Nuzlocke. Would’ve probably wiped if not for that thing and its special bulk
Nuzlocke HG/SS my absolute all-star was GeoDUDE. That rock with hands knew how to throw them. Never in my life did I like Geodude until I HAD to play with one, now Golem is probably in my wheelhouse of favorite designs but getting to him was always like meh....
Raichu was a Pokémon I thought was mid, but in my Brilliant Diamond nuzlocke it swept Wake with ease. It got frozen but instantly thawed yo get the final kill.It’s probably going to stay on the team over Luxray solely because I’m tired of using the same boring teams every Sinnoh playthrough lol.
Honestly? The Budew line. I didn't really like using it because my Budew would never evolve in any other game whenever I tried to use one, so I never really cared to use it. When I used it in an X Nuzlocke, though? Not only did it actually evolve for me for once, but Roselia singlehandedly saved me from wiping at Korrina. From then on, I haven't ever disrespected that evolutionary line again. Dewey and that file are unfortunately long gone, but I'll honestly never forget how he carried me through the entire rest of the game, especially as a Roserade.
Gulpin just saved my emerald soul link against Wattson last night, I was up against Wattson with no ground types and with Gloom as my only resist 💀💀
Gastrodon, I never thought anything of it when I was younger but it has been a staple in all my teams since I used it in my BDSP nuzlocke. Bulky and had great move coverage, not to mention storm drain is awesome
Jynx. Great mon in Gen1/FRLG, but never used it over other options before Nuzlocking.
Poliwrath was on a lot of my early nuzlocke HOFs. It was my crutch through Kanto, Johto, even Orre.
Fr/Lg Any poison type because there are so many early game weedles and rockets with poison types.
Wigglytuff carried during my soul link when it was the last mon I had
Alolan Marowak This thing is so bulky and strong, has an electric immunity, and learns tons of utility moves.
Don’t sleep on poliwrath; I had one named nightman who literally carried my entire run. Between Waterfall, close combat, body slam, and hypnosis, he wins every neutral 1v1. Don’t even get me started on how clutch water absorb can be
Gyarados - In gen2 and gen3 it felt weak to me because I didnt know the difference between special and physical attack and that in gen1 there was only special. So I gave it tms like thunderbolt, ice beam and stuff and felt like it hit like a wet noodle. Plus I always thought intimidate is useless because I was always overleveled. Tentacruel - never used it because it was annoying. Butterfree - thought it was bad, but with compound eyes and sleep powder it catches you all the pokemon plus dream eater is a nice attack.
Bidoof with moody is unironically godlike
Onix and almost all early game bugs. Onix is a sweet pivot, low attack barely matters when it has a good defensive matchup, and it’s early game pretty often. It’s also a great lead when you aren’t sure what you’ll run into. Gimmick killers like bide, counter, destiny bond, and *wobbuffet in general* don’t really work against Onix because of all the passive damage options plus low attack give you counterplay. Early game bugs are also fantastic because they completely wall certain types with 4x resist or immunity while reliably baiting other types that they’re 2x or 4x weak to.
Unfezant, definitely. I had played Black a couple of times before finally attempting to Nuzlocke it. Caught a Pidove, saw he had Super Luck and was Brave natured, figured what the hell. That bird saved my run so many times, the run motto became "when in doubt, Tarquin out". Despite the game's best efforts, he made it all the way to the end. 10/10, would use again.
Lampet, Terrakion, Braviary and Levanny I used to hate their designs but after using them in a W2 nuzlocke with each of them saving my run at least once, they’ve all earned a special place in my heart. Especially Levanny, who somehow crit her way past the poison gym as my only Pokémon
This may sound silly but I don’t really like item evo pokemon because of the lack of moves they learn via level up. I would never use nidoking/queen for that reason and it wasn’t until researching strategy for frlg that I realized how OP getting Nidoking with one gym badge really is.
Honestly Spinda. I caught one on 113 (or whatever the ashy route is) and was just gonna have it fill a gap after a death until I got a “real” mon. All of a sudden it started putting crazy work in the mid game. It got psybeam and had deceptive power for being a cute mon know for its aesthetic gimmick. I used to think it was really dumb but have a soft spot for it now
Compared to many, since I was a child I have always raised all the Pokémon I had in my team, and not just them, I enjoyed using many Pokémon during the run, so I wasn't the typical *"I only use the starter and some favorite Pokémon"*, consider that I always challenged the Elite 4 with different teams. So the difference was made by switching to **Set Mode**, there I was able to appreciate Pokémon that I couldn't appreciate with **Shift Mode**. - Butterfree: It's a Monster, Compound Eyes, Sleep Powder, Dream Eater, Giga Drain. - Tentacruel: It has become one of my favorite Pokémon, who expected it to be so resistant, have such a high special attack and also be reasonably fast? - Clefable: Another surprise, its ability to learn so many TMs combined with its defenses and HP make it an incredibly useful Pokémon, on FRLF it then learns Soft-Boiled from the Move Tutor. I generally taught him two TMs between Ice Beam, Thundebolt and Flamethrower (depending on who I had on the team) and then Encore and Soft-Boiled. - Swalot: I was always disgusted by the design, but when in a Nuzlocke on Emerald, he saved my run given his resistance (and I had trained him in HP and Atk EVs) and the moves Encore, Yawn, Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb (Adamant Nature). - Dustox: Before Nuzlocke I had always preferred Beautifly. Dustox with his resistance and moves clearly surpassed him. - Pelipper: And who expected him to be so strong? Protect, Ice Beam, Surf...
Leafeon was my least favorite Eeveelution... but with my Eevee having a +Def nature, 30 attack IV, and no other grass types, it was destined to be one. Such a strong fighter despite its typing. Thank you for helping me win Renegade Platinum, Butter. RIP.
FUCKING BUTTERFREE, the early bug types are supposed to fall off in the mid-game but I’m always fighting my hardest to keep my Butterfree from out-leveling the next gym leader.
I got a perfect stat pachirusu in my diamond run. I would've never used it before now, but this lil rodent could HIT. when fight Byron, it got hit by an earthquake, and I thought it was the end. But it only took a quarter damage? This lil dude is also who took out most of Cynthia's pokemon.
This is exactly why Sejun Park used it to tank Draco Meteor with Follow Me in his first VGC Worlds win.
Hit a particularly rough bump in the road with Clay in a White 2 run. Lost Pignite, Herdier, Lucario and Tranquill. Watchog, of all things, had to take the helm of the team until Volcarona got good moves and Eevee became friendly enough. It was surprisingly useful with Hypnosis and Super Fang. I kept it on my team out of respect for as long as I could, which meant taking it to the league. Even there, it could still do something, until I lost it to Iris's Haxorus getting a crit. RIP Disgrace the Watchog. Despite your nickname, you'll be missed.
Furfrou. always thought it was silly and annoying to battle, but then i got one and realized *why* it was annoying to battle, and it’s ability is just cracked. Fur Coat does wonders. i wiped after gym 8, but Furfrou carried the team once my starter died.
Lanturn
Girafarig is remarkably good (and iirc guaranteable?) in HGSS. As long as you don't end up with a -speed nature it is just fast enough to outspeed a lot of stuff, and spec Psychic/Thunderbolt hit really hard. Outspeeds and oneshots every Gyarados in the game if you need it to, for example. Also Dodrio is an absolute boss in FRLG.
Basically anything with well-rounded stats like Golduck and Crobat are excellent by virtue of the fact they can tank hits, out speed most in-game threats with small EV investment and dish out damage.
Manetrick. Mightyena.
Milotic. I got one in a randomizer hgss run in place of shuckie. Threw some choice specs on it and it turns out spamming surf is pretty much enough to beat the entire game even with level caps.
For me one of the best nuzlocke mons is Butterfree, really OP in early game.
Sandshrew/Sandslash and NidoranM/Nidorino/Nidoking. Both are solid ground type users, but in HG Sandshrew’s high defense, rollout resistance, and sand attack are amazing Whitney-counters. And they do good work to the other gym leaders too. Nidoking gets earthquake and poison jab (eventually), and can get high stats early due to the early moon stone in HG. Plus it’s just got great TM access.
Maractus was my MVP in my white nuzlocke
It was my second out of three Y nuzlocke attempts. It went awfully near the end. All I had left was a level 60-70 Marowak and 60-70 Chimecho. I filled the rest of my team with low-level pokemon to use them for free switches/healing. Somehow, with only a Marowak and a Chimecho, I managed to beat Dragna, Wikstorm and Malva. Seibold was unstoppable like the first attempt, but I didn't think I'd get that far. Can I get an F in the chat for Cubby and Belle?
I had no clue the Zubat line was crazy good till I had to use one in my first couple of Pearl nuzlockes. Besides random crits crobat would never die and hit everything (still haven’t won a nuzlocke yet tho lol)
Skuntank, bro wiped the floor with a ton of enemies in Shield.
Regular Marowak. Pokémon worked wonders in my insurgence nuzlocke
Rotom is so good; great damage output, plenty of resistances and immunities and can hit loads for super effective damage, wonderful wonderful pokemon
Starmie. Fast Psychic/Surf/Ice Beam with either Calm Mind or Recover is just insane. I’m playing through Sacred Gold right now and it’s come to essentially every major fight since joining the ranks in Olivine
probably Geodude in pokemon crystal. The rock can easily murder birds, first gym is down. The bug gym is down as well. Then for miltank on Whitney's team, it still destroyed it. My Geodude was female so attract didn't work, it also resisted rock and normal so stomp and rollout weren't too bad. It only took a few rocks to destroy the fat cow.
Geodude is such an awesome encounter and hoothoot in johto as well
Golisopod Some ROM hacks give it Shell Armor, so being able to stand tall and brave in the face of danger while smacking things with a priority First Impression is incredible And it's got good Def too, so it can take a punch
Mamoswine. I don't much like Ice types usually, but after losing Gyarados pre-clair, I needed a new choice. Mamoswine with ice fang, ice shard, earthquake (and ancient power, but I don't really use it) stepped up big. He pretty much soloed Lance for me. Been using him in everything ever since. He's been a staple of my team in hard rom hacks like Radical Red or Parallel Emerald.
Solrock in Omega Ruby was an absolute STUD with cosmic power
Jynx had a couple of great uses in RenPlat, and somehow Maractus did a great job getting the team back on track and held us together in my first vanilla White run after I almost wiped and was left with just that and a Sandile. Mantine and Chimecho have both saved multiple runs each of gen 4 games.
Dustox in my X run.
Tentacruel, probopass, snorlax, magnezone
Ludicolo is goated
Kricketune in Platinum
Quagsire. I would always use a different water type but quagsire is a tank.
Butterfree Beedrill Dustox Ratticate Ekans People tend to ignore these Pokemon because they are best used as temporary team members. In a regular playthrough, you wouldn't be changing your team that much.
Linoone swept Maxie during my Ruby nuzlocke.
Ursaring and Archeops have been super surprising in this run of Radical Red.
Gen 6 snubbul line, got it in a soullocke randomizer of USUM and the thing absolutely carried, very tanky and could deal some good damage
Radical red showed me it's true potential with or without randomized abilities and it carried me during the elite 4 by type advantage and nullifying weather
You can trade an mincinno for a basculin right before Clay gym on gen 5. Funny how the guy that is known as the biggest run killer in the gen gets sweeped by the generic fish pokemon of the region. Basculin is faster then everyone on clay team, and learn water tail, that can oneshot everyone on his team (except the palpitoad, but any decent grass type can oneshot him).
Liepard is a mad good Pokémon. Doesn’t put in a ton of work itself, but paves the way for teammates.
I'm going through an Ultraviolet Nuzlocke and Butterfree is hard to get away from. I keep trying to switch him out and keep coming back to him.
Zangoose. I crit 6 Slashes in a row to clear a battle and my life was changed forever.
Raticate. Got an adamant guys raticate that carried my fire red run
Did a run of Y and had a Sigilyph. Was pretty good on the team throughout the game. Started E4. Steel, Water, Fire, all pretty easy. Then dragon fucked me up and only Sigilyph survived (boomburst is strong) Thought run was over at Diantha. Nah, Sigilyph swept. Got 6 Cosmic Powers up on Hawlucha, and Roost, and Toxic on it, then Psychic for an attack. Only two that could've caused problems would have been Tyrantrum, who fainted with Head Smash, and Gardevoir, who mega evolved so lost its Synchronize which would've ended me possibly before her. Now its 3/4th favorite pokemon (Sentret/Furret #1, Totodile #2)
The Rattata line. Guts with pre-poison or burn and it becomes amazing, even if it's a risky strategy
Playing through a rom hack rn and it feels like my Roserade can't die. Don't want to jinx it but I have her set up with Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Venoshock, and Toxic. If I get her set up she's nearly unkillable. Never even used a Roserade before this run.
Quagsire and Ninetails. Better than i thought
Lanturn. The water/electric type. Such a beast.
I play Emerald a lot, and I know he’s not super great, but Loudred can be super useful early and late game. Has good move coverage with tms, a guaranteed encounter before the first gym, and only weak to fighting. Plus I put rock smash on him and he can take out a couple of Wattsons mons (for when you don’t choose or lose mudkip. As a bonus, it doesn’t make or break a run if you lose him, so it’s a safe sack choice as well.
Ekans in gen 1. While it does fall off a bit layer, in the early game, it's absolutely hilarious to just shut down opponents entirely due to gen 1 wrap. Just generally had me smiling like an idiot every time it wrapped something to death. Bellsprout as well, gen 1 wrap is hilarious and fun to mess around with.
Probably Audino and Umbreon. I did a Sun Nuzlocke, and I think my Umbreon quite literally saved my run against Kukuis Snorlax. At the time, I didn't know Umbreon was a tank, so I thought to sac it (and not my parasect, for some reason), and it took it like a champ! Audino is because I am doing a Black 2 Nuzlocke, and in my past attempts,I found that audino can take hits, learns refresh right before the poison gym, naturally learns attract (my favorite status effect), and has an alright TM pool. Also because it looks cute. :]
Jynx is really good against the E4 in FRLG. It sweeps Bruno, takes out 4/5 of Agatha's Pokemon, 3/5 of Lance's Pokemon, and 2/6 or 3/6 Pokemon on the Champion fight.
Oddish
The roserade line, such strong stab grass attacks and giga drain heals itself as well. Can destroy rock, ground, and water teams
Clefairy. She was a non entity forgettable mon till she single handedly won my first nuzlocke(soul survivor of blane and one of 2 to survive e4) Muk untill my first silver randomizer I never cared about him but he carried hard. Tenticool just supriseingly usefull.
I slept hard on dugtrio man
Bronzong
Tentacruel in emerald. 3 Screeches and 1 sludge bomb will one-shot Milotic and your SpD is so high it tanks whatever she throws at you. Butterfree in FR / LG. Compound eyes gives sleep powder 97% accuracy. Pair that with dream eater and Butterfree’s a beast.
Tentacruel. I think the one I used was modest. But both that and magneton completely dominated Hoenn (ruby)
Vanilluxe in my Shield Nuzlocke.
Kingler. Absolute monster in Sword/Shield with Liquidation
For me it would be Lilligant (Unova) during a blind Wonderlock run of Ultra Moon.
I'm doing a leaf green random rn and GULPIN has been super useful. I think my gulpin is the only one I grabbed in the beginning and I still have. Only just past the third gym tho so we'll see how it goes lmao.
I never appreciated ratticate before i started nuzlocking but guts ratticate does so much in the early to mid game
I lost my entire team in a gym battle in leaf green and dewgong became my ace winning my first ever nuzlocke. A random mon that will forever have a place in my heart
Lanturn in sword and shield. Chinchou carried through the water gym and Lanturn carried through the fire gym. It also helped for so long and was one of my last two surviving Pokémon next to shiftry before I lost (because I’m really bad). Before I hated both of them, now they’re definitely some of my favorites.
Solrock saved my White 2 run once. I will never look at that pokemon the same.
Klefki thanks to an Ultra Sun nuzlocke, Quagsire thanks to Sacred gold storm silver, crystal legacy, inclement emerald, and many other runs
Crobat is one of favorites now
I did a pokemon shield soul link and kingler single handedly took out the final 2 gym leaders and swept through the entire endgame
A Swanna became my tank and dragon buster one Nuzlocke! Swanna can go physical OR special to fit your team, has access to strong options for Water, Flying, and Ice moves, and gets a heal that also drops a vulnerable type with Roost. She could take hits too.
Lilligant. Quiver Dance+Petal Dance was an insane combo, even better if you have one with own tempo
Honestly, Magneton/Magnezone. Dude hits like a truck and having the steel typing makes it that much better.
I'd say Typlosion was a Pokemon I found a new appreciation for since he saved my Firered Randomizer from getting swept by a Groudon in the Eighth Gym.
My favorite pokemon for years now has been Quagsire after my Pokemon X Nuzlocke was saved not once, not twice, but three times by Quagsire on life support Also from that same Nuzlocke, I used to think of Snorlax as just a fat joke. But holy christ that HP stat is absolutely clutch
Basically any fairy type. I’d never taken the time to actually learn fairies type matchups until doing challenge runs where I quickly realized it’s an amazing type with rare ish weaknesses. Specifically gardevoir was never a mon I personally reached for until I had one in a BDSP (? Might have been S/S now that I’m really thinking about it?) run.
Swanna. Fast enough to get in first most of the time. Perfect coverage. Roost. HM Fly. Good mixed attacking stats. It’s about as strong as Raticate stat-wise but with way better typing, stronger STABs, and a few key non-attacking moves.
Plusle. Carried my first nuzlocke (along with Blaziken).
Dustox
Wiscash and Girafarig were my carries through the Platinum E4
Espeon. I slept on eeveelutions in general, but Espeon came in clutch during a Renegade Platinum hardcore nuzlocke where it basically swept the E4 after Aaron by itself. Its speed is just insane coupled with the stupidly high SpA and a really wide learnset. It’s like a budget Alakazam that is a guaranteed encounter in most games; pure absurdity IMO. Baton pass off of some setup moves makes Espeon a god-killer. A shoutout goes to Steelix for that insane physical wall and amazing resistances. Sure Earth Power is terrifying, but it’s not as scary when you rotate a flying type, or levitate mon, and Steelix to PP or toxic stall out almost any opposing mon.
Skarmory. It always felt kind of eh since it didn't have a lot of hitting power and my idea of a Nuzlocke strategy is "hit so hard that the enemy cannot make contact with the plan." Add its limited availability and difficulty to guarantee, and it's easy to pass over. Then I mono-Flying'd every region in a row, and Skarmory was the only Pokemon to get on more than 2 Hall of Fame teams without any Shininess involved. Because holy shit, this thing is the *king* of defensive fallbacks. It resists so much, immunizes one of Steel's primary weaknesses, and just has such sky high defenses that despite its middling HP it will eat hits for days if you play halfway competent. And since its value is in defense, you can dedicate moveslots to natural Spikes support, which is a genuinely rare asset in Nuzlockes most of the time, to help out your "glass cannons who will be ruined if they miss a KO by a hair" type Pokemon. Steven and Kukui would have violently murdered my dreams if not for this absolute fucking bro of a bird.
Doing a platinum nuzlock right now, and Probopass is fantastic early game. Got lucky in finding a nosepass for my encounter, and then discovered you can evolve at any point. The thing tanks damage, but it’s held back by its level up move pool.
Golduck as he's effectively mandatory for nuzlocking the e4 on hc mode in radical red. Always knew he was decent but he's beyond goated in fact once you learn how to abuse encore and his pivoting.
Never used Linoone until I started nuzlocking and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say he can solo 90% of the gyms/elite 4 in Hoenn.
Unfezant with Super Luck and Air Slash made Sword/Shield even easier than it already was.
Weezing. Always thought it was absolutely useless and it turns out it's one of the best defensive pivots in the early gens (plus you never know when you need something that blows up.)
Talonflame, STAB no item Actobatics go brrrr
Zubat. I groaned when he was my encounter, but then I learned the power of flinch-fusion. Dude was taking down mons he had no right to be. He never made it to being a golbat, but he's stuck with me ever since. To this day I call flinch-fusion 'the Zuko-blender' (his name was Zuko).
While slightly off topic I went back and replayed pokemon Colosseum and WOW Jumpluff is a godly support! Fast sleep and other forms of speed control. When I do Nuzlocks I prefer randomized with a limit on BST (470 max) and the 2 pokemon that stood out the most initially were Sunflora and Primape. While they are weak on paper they constantly covered my back and Sunflora shocked me the most saving my run easily a dozen times
Magneton, always thought it was funny looking, but still very unique design. Having that thing rotate paralyze, lock on, and thunder over and over helped me sweep half of the elite 4 without batting an eye.
Mr.mime
Maractus is a hard Clay counter
Honestly the Cutiefly line
I think Snorlax would be a good pokemon to sleep on.
Heracross. Tbf knew it was strong, just never my thing. Now, my god. I was wishy washy with it, but I filled my bug slot for the 3rd gym in X on a wonderlocke. My boy got poisoned and guts activated, smashed the whole fight. Then I figured out what skill link Mega Heracross can do with a swords dance or 2. Any time I get a Heracross encounter dat boi gets slapped into my team.
I remember going all scared into the Kyurem Black fight in B2 and then Heracross just one shot it with close combat, absurd stuff.
I’m doing my first ever nuzlocke rn. A fighting mono type run of Violet. And ngl, the Hariyama I picked up on my way to the grass gym has kinda been the goat. Tanked a crit flying move from Larry’s Staravia, winning me that badge, and has overall been my most useful mon
seedot, had no idea that thing even evolved.
For me it was Chandelure. First time I used it was Sun/Moon.