Pokemon I Like But Never Get To Use

When it comes to Pokemon GO, the meta doesn’t change much. In PvP, there are random cups that offer a change, but your standard PvP match will always have familiar faces, especially as you play the higher leagues. In PvE content, the meta most of the time is use six of one Pokemon and never use the default recommended stuff the game suggests.

Anyway, here are some Pokemon I like, but rarely get to use in battle.

Entei and Suicune

The legendary beasts Entei and Suicune are really cool Pokemon. Doesn’t help that their choice of attacks just aren’t very good. Suicune in particular doesn’t have access to any good water moves, which means it has to rely in Ice-type moves, without STAB. Entei is just about okay when it comes to damage, but it is still overshadowed by the likes of Reshiram, Moltres and possibly even Heatran.

And already, Raikou is slowly joining them. As an electric type, Zekrom offers better stats and some bulk, while Thundurus’s Therian form removes its huge weakness to ground the same way Zapdos does. And we’re bound to have more electric types on their way soon.

Feraligatr and Empoleon, and starters overall.

Basically, there are better starters, especially for PvP. Sure, Oshawott finally got its own community day, but we’ve already had plenty of water types with the same move. The future also looks grim for all the other water starters as well, since we’ll at some point get a Froakie community day. At which point he’ll be the best water type… Assuming you’re not just using Kyogre.

The same also applies to both grass and fire starters. You’ll only really use one of the starters, neglecting others. Or you can just use a Legendary like Reshiram. Grass types are currently okay for the moment, since Roserade is a glass cannon and Zaruud is a one-off mythical Pokemon.

Noivern, Druddigon, Goodra

These guys are all dragons. But they are not Rayquaza in PvE and they’re not Dragonite, Dialga or Giratina in PvP. Each of these Pokemon lack the sheer damage a Rayquaza can put out, or the bulk that Dragonite, Dialga and Giratina have. Seriously, those three are all very, very tanky Pokemon. While Goodra is kinda like Dragonite but messier, Noivern and Druddigon don’t have anything special about them. Maybe they would if they got their signature moves, but signature moves are few and far between. There are plenty of other Pokemon who will get exclusive moves before these lesser dragons.

Gardevoir

I really like the designs of both Gardevoir. It and Galade are a cool pair of Pokemon with some unique typings. Gardevoir in particular is Fairy/Psychic, which seems quite interesting. Unfortunately, fairy types in general in Pokemon GO have very little use outside of PvP. This is because fairy Fast moves consist of Charm and not much else. Charm is a strong fast attack, but it takes forever to generate enough energy to use a charged attack. So even in cases where Gardevoir would be a strong choice – namely against Dragon types – Ice and other Dragons are vastly more useful and do more damage.

The majority of Pokemon in general

The sad fact is that, if you want to be a strong player, you’ll mostly end up ignoring most of the Pokedex. And because Pokemon GO’s combat is vastly different to the main games, the list of Pokemon is even smaller. And it gets even worse when you are few in number to do Legendary raids. Like, sure I can use my Hundoom, but using a Tyranitar or a Darkrai or five does more damage in less time. While some places can easily get full raid lobbies, there are many, many places where trainers have to be smart and bring the best Pokemon, since there are only a handful of other players available to do legendary raids.

And, of course, there’s the Aggron problem. Damn recommendations can be really fucky or potentially flat out wrong.

Then again, not every Pokemon can be amazing. Otherwise there’d be no point in collecting all these Pokemon…