Pokémon Evolutions that surpassed your expectations?

[Suspicious Derivative]

Since there is a thread for evolutions that people find disappointing, I felt that we needed a thread for the opposite. I don't think there's already a thread like this, I searched a little but couldn't find one.

What's a Pokémon evolution (regular or Mega) that turned out way better than you had expected? It doesn't have to be in terms of design, it can be because of how it worked in battle (after evolving), or for any other reason.

Here are two from me:

Fuecoco was my least favorite Paldea starter right from the moment it was first shown, and I don't think Crocalor is much of an improvement. Skeledirge, on the other hand, is amazing. It loses all the goofiness from the first stages and becomes very serious - in a good way. It really saved the line for me. Plus, I had great success with it in battles when I used it in the Indigo Disk.

I think Alolan Geodude and Graveler are okay, but I find them a bit boring since I feel that they look too similar to their Kantonian forms. Alolan Golem, though, is fantastic. It gets a beard and a cannon on its back. That's all any Pokémon needs to become great in my eyes.

I'll post more later, but for now, I want to hear from everyone else.

 

[CynicalGiant]

I am a big fan of Dunsparce, easily one of my favorite pokemon ever. I just like how weird it is. I would see all the fanart of Dunsparce getting an evolution over the years and never really liked any of the ideas. They all seemed to treat Dunsparce as some ugly duckling pokemon like Magikarp or Feebas, expecting it to evolve into some serpent dragon that has nothing to do with the thing Dunsparce is based on.

Dunsparce is supposed to be a weirdo, it is also a bit of a joke played on the audience which is part of why I love it. The pokemon anime understands when they had that one episode where its an entire town of kids that love Dunsparce. It's silly, it's weird, but it's also strangely cute and cool. Weird snake bee hybrid guy who is Normal for some reason. Defying all expectations. This is what a Pokemon is to me.

Then Gen 9 arrives and we finally get the Dunsparce evolution. Dudunsparce. Lots of people in the community were mad, theres so many reactions of streamers getting incredibly angry and or sad.

but not me. I was always dreading an evolution because I've had other favorites of mine change too much when evolving and didn't want them to ruin it. I laughed so hard with joy when I first saw it and encountered it.

I absolutely love how Dudunsparce is the same joke again, it is just more Dunsparce. You even have the incredibly rare chance of an even longer Dunsparce. It is perfect, 10/10 thank you game freak. I'm sad I ever doubted they'd give into the "epic cool beautiful dragon serpent wearing a Dunsparce costume"

look at this glorious goofball, love this guy

 

[doipy hooves]

XY Fennekin makes a funny blind impression earlygame, it tricks you into leaning physical with Howl and Flame Charge before evolving and pulling out Psybeam. Also refreshing after the Fire/Fighting starter trend on a wider scale.

 

[mertyville]

I actually really am surprised how useful and valuable Mega Aerodactyl is. It is on paper not much of an improvement on Aerodactyl. Even its ability feels kinda pointless because its contact moves are low base power. However it saw various niche uses in various competitive formats it is allowed in.
Also in-game you get it as one of your earliest megas in XY. It is a huge jump in power level considering Aerodactyl for that point is already pretty strong (second gym).

 

[Ironmage]

I was still quite new going into my first playthrough of BW, with nearly no comprehension of stat spreads. Litwick was just one of several mons I picked up midgame because I thought it was cute. While I still like most of the Chargestone gang, I feel Chandelure held onto that cuteness a bit more than some of the other evolved mons. It ended up on the E4 team, some combination of Ghost being good into two of them and forming a FWG core with Serperior and Simipour. Again, I wasn't thinking about its stats at all.

And then it OHKOd Reshiram. Sure, I might have overleveled a bit not used to a flat curve within the E4 proper or known about STAB on that Shadow Ball, but still. I was disappointed to learn I got a full heal going into N because I had just traded out my Fire-type for an apparently worse one on account of it being battered by the (second) attempt to catch the legendary.

 

[bobomania]

Meowstic surprised me quite a lot in my playthrough of Z-A. Even with its weak stats and no mega pre-DLC, its access to a variety of ranged attack options and quick recharge times allowed it to dominate in the Z-A royale and a handful of the main quest battles as well. Always have been a fan of the design, but I never used Espurr in XY. Kind of a shame that most Psychics fight for a niche to even surpass Kadabra at times. Hoping that Mega Meowstic has a great ability to help it be a reasonable option to choose over Alakazam in Champions.

 

[Hugin]

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Meowstic surprised me quite a lot in my playthrough of Z-A. Even with its weak stats and no mega pre-DLC, its access to a variety of ranged attack options and quick recharge times allowed it to dominate in the Z-A royale and a handful of the main quest battles as well. Always have been a fan of the design, but I never used Espurr in XY. Kind of a shame that most Psychics fight for a niche to even surpass Kadabra at times. Hoping that Mega Meowstic has a great ability to help it be a reasonable option to choose over Alakazam in Champions.

"Trying to be better than Kadabra" is the downfall of so many good Psychic mons. 120 Satk/105 Speed with 0 bulk is an unreasonably min-maxed spread, and even if something can be better, it cannot do so in any sort of interesting way. Meowstic doesn't want to be better, it wants to have a good support movepool, useable bulk, and solid offenses, which is a perfectly viable option and far more fun.

I think Gen 3 is kind of the best gen about unexpected evos that nevertheless fit and make the mon significantly better. Slakoth-Vigoroth is the one I remember as a kid, losing the ability that kept eating turns and getting immunity to sleep and good stats was shocking and much appreciated. But that gen also gave us Trapinch, Shroomish, Nincada, lots of mons that changed heavily but in a very positive way.

 

[bobomania]

"Trying to be better than Kadabra" is the downfall of so many good Psychic mons. 120 Satk/105 Speed with 0 bulk is an unreasonably min-maxed spread, and even if something can be better, it cannot do so in any sort of interesting way. Meowstic doesn't want to be better, it wants to have a good support movepool, useable bulk, and solid offenses, which is a perfectly viable option and far more fun.

I think the Meowstics could do it if they leaned into their differences more. Their movepools are nearly identical save for a few moves. should have access to a huge amount of status moves (kind of remedied in Z-A by giving it hazards) and should have wide crazy coverage.

 

[CTNC]

This is a more minor example because I already knew Altaria was good (In hindsight, lol.) because I couldn't beat the Flying Gym's Altaria in Emerald. After catching a Swablu and grinding until it evolved, I saw that it had a really cool type I'd never seen before, Dragon. It got even cooler when I accidentally used Dragon Breath twice against a Kecleon and it ended up being Super Effective. I hadn't seen a type that was Super Effective against itself before and that just made the new type even more interesting.

I'm not sure if Trapinch counts for me because it was finding out a cool Pokemon evolved from something disappointing instead of a disappointing Pokemon evolved into something cool. I wanted a Flygon and I knew the empty slot in the Pokedex was Vibrava because I'd seen it in the Battle Frontier, but I couldn't figure out what evolved into Vibriva even though the slot before that was clearly Trapinch. I couldn't believe the weird annoying desert Pokemon that wouldn't let you run away could evolve into anything even remotely cool, let alone a Dragon.

If counting Mega Evolutions as Evolutions, I had zero faith in Mega Crabominable looking cool, let alone not stupid, when I heard it existed. I'm not sure how it happened, but the ugly crab turned into something that looks like you really don't want to mess with.