Pokemon you won't use in-game

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

I think it works in the context of Gen 1.

The first Magikarp you can get is the one from the Route 4 salesman at level 5, training it is actually a pretty major investment, and there's a very decent chance a kid playing the games for the first time during the 90s wouldn't know about Gyarados. However, anyone stubborn enough to continue training Magikarp on the off chance it'll get better will be rewarded with a beast that can easily muscle past Misty (an actually scary boss) and continue to be useful for the rest of the game. Like I said before, later games just made it way easier to get it Gyarados.

Plus iirc older gens locked fishing catches to specific levels based on the rod and Magikarp wasn't part of the Super Rod table, so you couldn't cheat a Gyarados later on. You had to invest in it regardless of what part of the game you were in.

Also the dichotomy of Magikarp being completely and utterly useless compared to Gyarados being a total powerhouse was really effective for Gen 1, especially in the context of the Magikarp salesman being the first means to obtain it.

It's supposed to be a ripoff in-universe, a waste of 500 yen for a Pokemon who is seemingly completely useless, not only having poor stats but only knowing Splash, a move that does nothing. If someone gives up, it will be a ripoff and a waste, but if you're persistent enough to try to raise the Magikarp from Level 5 up to Level 20 and beyond you're rewarded with a Pokemon who is incredibly strong, with high stats, a great movepool, and only two weaknesses, turning what should've been a wasted 500 yen into possibly the best monetary investment ever.

The game even subtly encourages people to try even if they don't know about Gyarados from what I dug into, because there are NPCs at the Pewter City PokeMart who allude to the Magikarp salesman. One of them brings up a shady salesman who sold a "totally weak" Magikarp for $500, but another NPC there says "Good things can happen if you raise a Pokemon diligently, even the weak ones!". The duality there notes Magikarp being useless and weak but also subtly encourages you to not only buy it but actively try to raise it, and the "good thing" that can happen from doing that is Gyarados.

Not to mention Magikarp as a whole was more effective in its gimmick in older gens because there was no EXP All mechanic and Magikarp is also in the Slow EXP Group, which made raising one a tedious chore in tandem with how weak it is. Later generations have made the process of raising Magikarp less of a chore due to scaled EXP gain and EXP All, especially in the Switch era where EXP being shared across the party is a permanently baked-in mechanic that cannot be turned off.

 

[Hugin]

Off the top of my head, friendship evolutions in older games is generally up there at the top of the list these days. I was willing to humor the mechanic back then but over time due to now being familiar with what most of those evo lines can do, better alternatives, and frankly decreased tolerance towards the idea of grinding an invisible number for middling payoffs hasn't really endeared me much. Would have put time-based evolutions here as well pre-PLA as a sort of honorary mention but that can be worked around by tweaking the clock if needed.

I was going to respond to this singing the praises of Eviolite for solving at least some of the "annoying evolution method" problem, but that mostly works for middle stages like Golbat and Rhydon. Meanwhile, for some reason most friendship evos are starting with extremely weak mons that NEED the evolution to function. Why GF?

 

[NaturalTropius]

I'll say this- I really never like using Pokémon that I can't fully evolve in-game. To me, the thought is like- I came into the series in Gen IV, and a lot of those evolutions just feel inseparable from their pre-evolved forms, even when they're still good without them. I can't use a Dusclops without thinking about how the team is incomplete because I can't evolve it into Dusknoir, and I can't use a Seadra without thinking about Kingdra. That really hurt my enjoyment of LGPE, just because it really did feel like those evolution lines were just forced to stay incomplete.

I will say, it's starting to happen with PLA and SV evolutions, too.

 

[Castersvarog]

Personally, I just cannot bring myself to use a Mon that’s only available at like the very end of the game, like during Victory Road or their equivalents.
It’s two things, having an empty team slot for that long just bugs me a little in a way I don’t even know how to describe.
And it just doesn’t let me build a connection to the Mon I’m using. Like not being able to evolve it myself or just get any use out of it except for a single digit number of fights.

Really the only exception has been Hydreigon in Gen 5 because there’s such a large postgame it can see a lot of use in

 

[Magcargo]

Previously, in the earlier gens, I would avoid using shitters like Emolga or Kricketune. I was more obsessed with stronger Pokemon like Chandelure, Aegislash, or Excadrill that were powerhouses in their final form. Nonetheless, now that I've mellowed out a bit, I think that finding ways to make a lot of these "bad" Pokémon work in an in-game playthrough and leveraging their good traits between their typing, movepool, or other traits is really cool. It helps that the EXP All of the newer gens have a lot of tools to make the Pokemon good, between convent item access, more accessible egg moves, infinite TMs, etc

Usually for a first playthrough, anything is fair game since ill be rotating a party of 10 - 12 mons, but generally, I don't like using legendary Pokemon in the story mode if I can help it. There are a few exceptions- the Titan Iron treads feels like a "strong Pokemon" more than a legendary for example- but most others I think are off the table. Urshifu could have been another exception but being forced to get the EXP charm to use it is a lame design choice, so I never do.

Apart from that, some Pokemon are kind of just bad and shitty in an unfun way. I definitely would never use Luvdisc (mostly due to vibes) and I feel like Unown would be an extremely boring Pokemon to use because it only has one move. Lumineon and Delibird are two other guys that I see myself not using though...... they do have some sauce I could see being fun. But yeah, I do feel that Unown / Ditto tier Pokemon that are not only bad statistically, but LITERALLY have no options in how they can be utilized or built are the type of Pokemon I'd never run

 

[Omastar68]

I try to challenge myself with nfe teams, but I cannot bring myself to, typically, use mons that forego reasonable abilities. Something like pressure is usually under fire by me for game, though I am using wailmer with that in oras rerun. There's worse stuff though than that even.

The exception is if I use an nfe that essentially gets no ability, because I have the option to Evo for useful one at some point. So my shroomish.

EDIT: w/ the nfe thing wouldn't use grubbin sadly. I'd feel dumb going adamant/etc, in case I have to evo, but similarly dumb to go modest/etc and NOT evo for forever/a while.