10 Weak Pokemon With Insane Potential

It may be tempting for some trainers to blast their way through their Pokemon adventure with an over-levelled Starter or perhaps a box legendary caught with a Master Ball.

While Pokemon is a game that can be played in any way the player likes, in the process, many Pokemon get overlooked and classified as weak due to the way they look or the total sum of their base stats.

But as a wise trainer once said, “Strong Pokemon. Weak Pokemon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites.” – Karen of the Johto Elite Four.

In the right hands, even the weakest Pokemon can stand tall and fell giants. Arceus beware.

10 Linoone

Stats, Stats, And More Stats

At first glance, Linoone is just another route-one normal type fodder Pokemon, maybe useful for a gym or two, then quickly shoved into the PC and never touched again, just like Raticate and Furret.

Of course, anyone who has done a Nuzlocke of Hoenn knows that Linoone has a very special move that makes it one of the most powerful Pokemon in the game.

Belly Drum is a tricky move to use, but it’s worth the risk. It halves the HP of the user but boosts its attack by six stages. While Linoone’s base attack may be pretty pitiful, that doesn’t matter when it has been effectively boosted by 4X or 300%. Luckily, it has a relatively decent speed stat, enough to sweep the entire elite four if done correctly.

Pop a Sitrus Berry on this little raccoon, and it’ll be good to go!

9 Klefki

Hazards Galore

Klefki is a set of keys. Need I say more? Of course, there’s more than meets the eye with this little lock opener. When trained correctly, Klefki can be a huge asset for you and an absolute nightmare to deal with for your opponent.

In battle, Klefki always wants to be sent out first. This is due to the fantastic ability Prankster, which gives increased priority to Status moves. This means that as long as your opponent doesn’t also use a priority move, and you’re not looking to be a heavy hitter, Klefki will always go first.

You can train Klefki to be a bit of a tank and mess with your opponent with moves like Spikes, Thunder Wave, Toxic, or even Reflect and Light screen. While Klefki isn’t going to be 1v1ing Pokemon any time soon, it will make the battlefield a nightmare for the rest of your opponent’s team.

8 Dugtrio

Don’t Try To Run

Dugtrio is a bit of a weird case. It came out of nowhere to be a gigantic threat when Generation 7 rolled around. This triple-diglett combo has always been a bit too squishy to be viable, without the proper stats to be a threat.

But when it received a buff in Sun and Moon, suddenly its true potential was unleashed upon the world. With a huge speed stat and Attack stat, Dugtrio became a bit of a glass cannon, with the excruciatingly annoying ability to ensnare the opponent with Arena Trap.

Switching is a crucial part of the competitive scene, and being unable to switch while Dugtrio whittles away your HP is a brutal feeling. So much so that Arena Trap and, by extension, Dugtrio actually received a ban in Smogon’s generation 7 competitive scene.

Banning this fuzzy little mole allowed many Pokemon back into the format and quelled a lot of rage.

7 Mimikyu

My Eyes Are Down Here

While this creepy little fellow may look a bit like Pikachu, I guarantee it is entirely in another league. Mimikyu’s stats aren’t anything to write home about, yet what makes it unique is something completely different.

Mimikyu has a fantastic ability that truly separates it from the crowd. Disguise allows Mimikyu to take zero damage from the first attack in every battle.

This basically allows Mimikyu to have one free turn to set up where it can’t be touched, unlike a Pokemon like Linoone who is always at risk while using Belly Drum.

Luckily, Mimikyu gets access to Swords Dance. I’m sure you can see where this is going. In every battle, Mimikyu has a free 100% boost to its physical attack.

When paired with moves like Shadow Sneak to guarantee going first, or Play Rough for a massive 90 Base power attack, Mimikyu is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Equip a Life Orb for maximum pain.

Turns out, Pikachu was useful after all.

6 Rotom

That’s One Scary Washing Machine

When Rotom pops out of the TV in Sinnoh’s Old Chateau and the legendary music starts to play, you may be a little confused. This tiny little light bulb is no legendary, yet its reputation might surpass that of even Arceus itself.

While Rotom may be pretty tame in its original form, as soon as it takes over a washing machine, well, it’s game over. Rotom Wash Form has been a staple in competitive battling for years now, and it’s not going away any time soon.

As it turns out, Water/Electric is a fantastic defensive typing, and with Levitate, Rotom’s ground weakness is completely nullified.

You can take advantage of its brilliant Special Attack stat with moves like Hydro Pump and Volt Switch or use Pain Split to stall out opponents. Rotom Wash is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, and it’ll be soaking opponents for years to come.

5 Pachirisu

Looks Can Be Deceiving

When you look at Pachirisu, what do you see? A cute little electric rodent, much like Pikachu. Poor attacking stats, no evolution, and zero potential, right? Wrong.

You’re looking at the 2014 Pokemon World Champion. Pseudo-Legendary Slayer and an absolute monster on the battlefield. Pachirisu was a surprise for everyone at the championships, and it has gone down in history, proving that looks aren’t everything.

With moves like Super Fang, Pachrisu can ignore its poor attack stat by dealing fixed damage, halving the opponent’s HP. In addition, Nuzzle will guarantee paralysis while breaking Focus Sashes. Finally, Pachirisu can use Follow Me to save its partners in a double battle and take any incoming damage.

Se Jun Park showed us all how to use unlikely Pokemon to their fullest potential, proving that base stats aren’t all that matters.

4 Azumarill

With Huge Power Comes Huge Responsibility

Azumarill is another unlikely Pika-Clone (Yes, it’s a Pikachu clone, don’t try to argue) with poor stats who turned out to be a terror to behold. Behind that glazed expression and goofy smile is arguably one of the most broken abilities in the game.

While Azumarill didn’t really do much from generations 2-5, in X and Y, it gained the fairy typing and access to fantastic moves like the previously mentioned Play Rough.

Coupled with Huge Power, an ability that literally doubles this Pokemon’s attack stat, suddenly Azumarill was a force to be reckoned with.

Did I mention that it also gets Belly Drum and Priority Aqua Jet? Azumarill has been a major OU threat for a long time and another contender, proving that stats don’t mean anything at the end of the day.

3 Smeargle

A Myriad Of Colors

This little painter Pokemon has some of the worst base stats in the entire game. Honestly, at a base total of 250, it’s basically unusable. But, of course, there’s a catch.

Its signature move, Sketch, fundamentally broke the game when Smeargle was able to copy Darkrai’s signature move, Dark Void, and send everyone on the field to sleep. This was so oppressive that in generation 7, Dark Void was nerfed to have 50% accuracy and only be able to be used by Darkrai.

But that didn’t mean the end for Smeargle. Cheesy strategies like Shell Smash Baton Pass live on to catch unassuming players off guard. While there are broken moves in the game, Smeargle will always be there to sketch them and create bizarre strategies.

2 Porygon 2

Cyber-Duck Warriors!

This Pokemon is one of the few examples of something being beautifully broken simply with the addition of one specific item.

On its own, Porygon 2 doesn’t excel in much, and there’s little reason you wouldn’t just evolve it into Porygon Z to make use of its disgustingly high base Special Attack stat. Of course, Eviolite exists…

Eviolite boosts defense and special defense by a whopping 50%, but only for a Pokemon that can still evolve. Porygon 2 is a perfect contender, as it becomes a special-attacking tank with huge HP investment, massive Special Attack and ridiculous defensive capabilities.

Couple this with a brilliant move pool with powerful elemental moves like Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Recover, and Tera Blast, and this Pokemon can check almost any threat and even sustain itself in the long term.

While some Pokemon may seem weak at first, sometimes all it takes is a strong ability or the right item for them to unlock their true potential.

1 Bidoof

And The World Knelt Before Him

Why on earth is Bidoof at number one? How could Bidoof really be that powerful? Everything said about Bidoof realistically goes for Bibarel too, but Bidoof is funnier.

But this entry isn’t a joke. Bidoof possesses one of the most broken abilities in the entire game, which makes it a surprise threat. So much so that this ability is banned in Smogon’s competitive format due to its strength and unpredictability.

Moody is an ability that randomly raises two stat stages by 2 and decreases another by 1. Imagine this: Bidoof uses Protect, raising its evasiveness by 2. Bidoof uses Substitute, raising its speed by 2. Bidoof uses Protect again. More stat boosts. And so on and so forth.

After a while, no matter what Bidoof’s base stats are, you’ll have an unkillable monster that can’t be hit and sweeps entire teams. It’s cheesy and pretty unfair. Of course, it can be countered, but not without proper knowledge of some good status moves.

In the end, even this ability, and therefore Bidoof, had to be nerfed so that Moody doesn’t affect evasion and accuracy anymore.

Bidoof was too strong; he had to be stopped, whatever the cost.

Systems

Released

November 18, 2022

ESRB

E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence

Genres