Discussion Almost Great Pokemon to Use, But...

[Scattered mind]

Just finished with Morty in my current HGSS playthrough and I thought to myself how Morty was so much easier than Whitney, even though I managed to get Heracross before challenging her. But then realized- Haercross, despite being a Fighting type, does not learn any Fighting type move until level 19!

But in general- what are some Pokemon that would have been perfect for your playthrough or generally for you to have as an ace partner in Pokemon games, but are having one or more flaws that just prevent you from ever using them?

 

[Their Goominess]

This is more recent, but in my Bug run of Shield, I found Frosmoth to be probably the weakest link in my team. Even though it has good special attack and decent special defence, and quite a good selection of moves (Bug Buzz, Ice Beam, Hurricane, Giga Drain, Quiver Dance, even Aurora Veil is great for Hail), I just found its lacklustre speed and defence let me down a bit. It also doesn't help that it has 2 4x weaknesses, one of which is generally physical (Rock). Although it does have a great hidden ability in Ice Scales.
It did frustrate me a bit since I absolutely adore the line and it's probably my fave moth Pokemon there is.

edit: also when I was replaying FRLG I had a problem with Victreebel in that it had pretty much no great Poison or Grass moves, even though that's not much of an issue in the more current games.

 

[AuraJackle]

This is 100% my problem with serperior. It's moveset is completely barron and has really bad attacking stats and type make it definitely bad for playing through the main story of gen 5. But it's my favorite starter of gen 5

 

[Scoop]

Here's an interesting two, actually: Lurantis and Toucannon.

Now for the first, if there's one ability I love, it's Contrary. Contrary makes Serperior an absolute monster with Leaf Storm and Malamar becomes a weird, fun attacker with Superpower.

So when I saw a Pokemon available in USUM that could actually USE Contrary and Leaf Storm in conjunction with one another, and it happened to be Lurantis, one of my favorite designs in Gen 7, I knew I had to use it in my playthrough. So I bred one and gave it all it needed to be an insane attacker through the game. He was too slow and he died to everything. I ditched him ASAP, because as much as I thought he'd be a useful partner, he just ended up being a punching bag. If he were just a bit faster, like Serperior, he'd work PERFECTLY. And in fact, speed leads us into Toucannon.

Now if there's another ability I love, it's skill link. It makes Cloyster my premiere pick for taking on the Battle Tree in gen 7 when I did. It's an ability that makes formerly useless moves legitimately useful. Toucannon is able to use moves such as Rock Blast and Bullet Seed to its advantage, so I figured he'd be fun to use, right?

He was too slow and died to everything. I ditched him ASAP and actually grew to hate his design somehow along with it. Sorry Toucannon, you tried.

Notice a trend here? These pokemon with HUGE potential for fun partners to use through the run are so incredibly slow and frail (ESPECIALLY lurantis) that they just cannot function properly. Their flaws are what made the time I used them absolutely miserable so I just had to ditch them.