History MagikarpPower / Pokemon

* Zig-Zigged with the Abra line. While it has massive special attack (105), great speed for a first stage Pokémon and learns many special TM moves like Shadow Ball, Dazziling Gleam and of course Psychic, it doesn't have damaging moves by level up and when you fight it only has one move: Teleport, which allows to flee from the battle, thus can pretty annoying to catch it. In their debut generation, the only damaging moves that it learns before fighting Misty are Bide and Mega Punch via TM, the former is risky since Abra is very fragile while the latter is inaccurate and uses Abra's horredonus phyiscal attack. Once it evolves into Kadabra at level 16, it learns Confusion and Kadabra's incredible special offense makes ''very'' good use of it. As icing on the cake, try evolving into Alakazam by trading and it can destroy most opponents that don't resist its Psychic-type moves.

* Zig-Zigged with the Abra line. While it has massive special attack (105), great speed for a first stage Pokémon and learns many special TM moves like Shadow Ball, Dazziling Gleam and of course Psychic, it doesn't have damaging moves by level up and when you fight it only has one move: Teleport, which allows to flee from the battle, thus can pretty annoying to catch it. In their debut generation, the only damaging moves that it learns before fighting Misty are Bide and Mega Punch via TM, the former is risky since Abra is very fragile while the latter is inaccurate and uses Abra's horredonus phyiscal attack. Once it evolves into Kadabra at level 16, it learns Confusion and Kadabra's incredible special offense makes ''very'' good use of it. As icing on the cake, try evolve into Alakazam by trading and it can destroy most opponents that don't resist its Psychic-type moves.

* Zig-Zigged with the Abra line. While it has massive special attack (105), great speed for a first stage Pokémon and learns many special TM moves like Shadow Ball, Dazziling Gleam and of course Psychic, it doesn't have damaging moves by level up and when you fight it only has one move: Teleport, which allows to flee from the battle, thus can pretty annoying to catch it. In Generation I, the only damaging moves that it learns before fighting Misty are Bide and Mega Punch by TM, the former is risky since Abra is very fragile while the latter is inaccurate and it uses Abra's horredonus phyiscal attack. Once it evolves into Kadabra at level 16, it learns Confusion and Kadabra's incredible special offense makes ''very'' good use of it. As icing on the cake, try evolve into Alakazam and it can destroy most opponents that don't resist its Psychic-type moves.

* Zig-Zigged with Abra line. While it has massive special attack (105), great speed for a first stage Pokémon and learns many special TM moves like Shadow Ball, Dazziling Gleam and of course Psychic, it doesn't have damanging moves by level up and when you fight it only has one move: Teleport, which allows to flee from the battle, thus can pretty annoying to catch it. In Generation I, the only damaging moves that it learns before fighting Misty are Bide and Mega Punch by TM, the former is risky since Abra is very fragile while the latter is inaccurate and uses Abra's horredonus phyiscal attack. Once it evolves into Kadabra at level 16, it learns Confusion and Kadabra's incredible special offense makes ''very'' good use of it. As icing on the cake, try evolve into Alakazam and it can destroy most opponents that don't resist its Psychic-type moves.

* Eevee starts out as a relatively weak Normal-type, with unremarkable stats even by the standards of unevolved Pokémon and [[PoorPredictableRock a very shallow movepool]]. If it has Adaptability to power up its STAB moves, it'll be able to pull its weight better for a little while, but it'll still get outclassed quickly. Getting it to evolve into a specific Eeveelution can be more or less difficult depending on the game and generation. Once it evolves, however, its base stat total more than doubles, and it'll start learning more powerful moves corresponding to its new type.
* Dratini is the first start of the "pseudo-legendary" trend via the fact that it's a non-legendary with an evolutionary line that ends up giving it roughly the same stat total as any one of them (600, which is equal to the Legendaries which have 100 in every stat like Mew). It starts as a pretty unimpressive Pokémon with low overall power and a shallow level-up movepool. Compounded with an atrociously slow level-up speed and having one of the highest evolution levels of the franchise (like many "pseudo-legendary" evolution lines), it will take a lot of effort to train. Once it finally evolves into a Dragonite, it proves itself to be an impressive powerhouse with a diverse movepool. That being said, in this Generation, Dragonite is a slight case of PowerUpLetdown. Its stats are impressive and it has a wide movepool that can cover the basic elements, it can't fully take advantage of its much vaunted power, due to having no moves that take advantage of STAB, being rather slow for something of its level of power, and the only real moves that can take advantage of his massive Attack are Slam and Wrap. The latter is viable, but 1) makes Dragonite function more of an annoyance, and 2) most players going through the game would never immediately think of keeping Dratini's Wrap.

* Togepi starts out as a typical baby Pokémon: bad stats (aside from surprisingly good defenses) and a less-than-inspiring movepool. If you get its happiness high enough, it evolves into Togetic, which is a StoneWall that happens to be pretty lackluster in the early generations. But, starting in Gen IV, if you use a rare Shiny Stone on Togetic, it evolves into Togekiss, which gets a ''major'' boost to its stats and can learn a wide variety of moves. It gains even more utility after Gen VI with the introduction of the Fairy-type, retyping the whole line from Normal to Fairy (making Togetic and Togekiss Fairy/Flying-types).

* Noibat is pretty much a special-attacking version of Zubat. However, while Zubat evolves at level 22 where it becomes less abysmal to use, Noibat won't evolve until level ''48'', and its natural movepool is nothing to write home about. Once it evolves, however, it effectively becomes a slightly slower, slightly harder-hitting special version of Crobat, grabbing a niche as the fastest Dragon-type in the game, with their typical broad movepool.

* Bounsweet starts out as a pitiful JokeCharacter whose Pokédex entry states that she is often SwallowedWhole by other Pokémon. She evolves into Steenee at level 18, and while Steenee is an improvement over Bounsweet, her overall stats are still terrible. After learning the move Stomp at level 29 though, she can evolve into Tsareena, a MightyGlacier with a high Attack stat and nice bulk.

* Meltan, Gen 7's very last Mythical Pokémon, is very weak stat-wise, but is unique because it can evolve... However, it can only evolve in ''VideoGame/PokemonGO'', and surprise, it needs ''400'' Meltan candies to evolve. What makes it worse is that they only appear when you've activated a box that [[SummoningArtifact summons them for you to catch]], and it only works for 30 minutes until it closes and can't be opened again for ''a whole week''. This makes the process of obtaining enough candies to be very arduous. Once you do, you'll be awarded with a pure Steel-type Melmetal who has stats on par with Mew and is by far the best Pokémon to take out Rocket Leaders.

* Applin is just as strong as you'd expect a [[VisualPun wyrm living inside of an apple]] to be, and it doesn't evolve by level, leaving it as a dead weight in the party for a while. It gets stronger when evolved using one of two rare version-exclusive apples: ''Sword''[='=]s Tart Apple turns it into the hard-hitting Flapple and ''Shield''[='=]s Sweet Apple turns it into the bulky Appletun.

* As anyone can tell at a glance, Smoliv doesn't have much to offer in terms of stat spread or type coverage with its only offensive moves being either Grass or Normal-type. Its evolution, Dolliv, is unfortunately no better in terms of what moves it can learn. When it evolves into Arboliva, it finally lets loose with its full potential. Not only does its movepool expand exponentially, its ability Seed Sower applies Grassy Terrain whenever it gets hit by a move, powering up any Grass-type moves it knows. Terastalize one with a Grass Tera Type, and it's harvest time.
* Charcadet is a small Fire type with a lower base stat total than the aforementioned Smoliv, with no single stat higher than 50 - basically, imagine a slightly better Tyrogue. But if you can manage to bring TwentyBearAsses to a specific NPC, you'll get an item that gives your Charcadet a massive power boost depending on version - ''Scarlet'' players get the Fire/Psychic type Armarouge, whose Special Attack stat of 125 allows it to launch devastating Flamethrowers and Psyshocks, at least until it gets access to its signature move Armor Cannon, a special Fire-type variant of Close Combat (meaning it's a 120 base power move with no accuracy penalties, making it superior to ''Fire Blast''); ''Shield'' players meanwhile get Ceruledge, a Fire/Ghost type whose 125 Attack stat is befitting of something with [[BladeBelowTheShoulder freakin' swords for arms]], not to mention its signature move Bitter Blade, which, while not as strong as Armor Cannon, instead ''heals Ceruledge'' for half the damage dealt.
* Finizen, while cute, is a weak Water-type in battle, with fairly mediocre stats right across the board. Not to mention, it evolves at Level 38, ''and'' requires being in [[SocializationBonus the Union Circle with another player]] to let it evolve. Doing so gets you Palafin, who, while better stats-wise, is still not great... at least on paper. Palafin gains access to a new ability called Zero to Hero[[note]] an ability that activates upon switching out and back in[[/note]], and Flip Turn[[note]] Essentially just a Water-type U-Turn[[/note]] to take advantage of it. Once it's back in play, it turns into its hero form, with a gargantuan BST of 650, including a monstrous attack stat of 160, with next to no drawbacks. If you have the patience to get one, the Pelagic Protector will prove to be a hero worthy of their name.

* Pawmi might look cute, but its stats are nothing too impressive with Speed and Attack being the only two stand-outs. Not only that, but if you managed to get a Pawmi with its hidden ability Iron Fist, then you won't benefit from it that much, since the only move it can learn that benefits from it is Mach Punch, and it learns it as an Egg Move, meaning you need to do some breeding (or use a Mirror Herb) to get a Pawmi with Mach Punch. Once it evolves into Pawmo, however, it does get a little better, now getting STAB for Mach Punch as an Electric/Fighting-type, but it still has room to grow. If you managed to figure out how to evolve Pawmo by having it walk around with you for 1000 steps with the Let's Go feature, then you have yourself Pawmot, a Pokémon with great flexibility as an offensive and support team member. It can even learn Revival Blessing, which lets players revive one of their fainted Pokémon even in online matches.

* [[TropeNamers Named]] from the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' Magikarp, which has horrible (but not the worst) overall stats and can only learn five moves outside of events[[note]]Splash, Tackle, Flail, Bounce, Hydro Pump — with Flail being introduced in Generation II, Bounce first becoming available to Magikarp beginning in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Platinum]]'', and Magikarp only gaining Hydro Pump in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' via TR as a reference to an old event[[/note]] (which was actually a paltry ''two'' moves at the time of its original debut appearance in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue''), one of which does absolutely nothing, and it cannot learn anything else other than these moves. It eventually evolves into the dreaded Gyarados, which is one of the most powerful and versatile creatures in the game. Interestingly, Magikarp can evolve at level 20, which is actually much earlier than most final evolutions with comparable stats, but doing so is still a pain because the damn thing is so weak, and if you want to get a Gyarados that knows the move Flail, then you have to prevent Magikarp from evolving until level 30, or else breed a Magikarp from two members of the line who know Flail. Come Gen VIII and Gyarados learning the powerful Waterfall as early as level 21 shows that this once-weak Pokémon is serious business.

* Zigzagged with the Bagon line. Bagon and its evolution, Shelgon, have fairly average stats for 1st and 2nd Stage Pokemon, being 300 and 420 respectively. It's the ''level'' at which they evolve that makes them qualify for this trope: Bagon evolves into Shelgon at Level 30, when most Pokemon would be nearing their final evolution. Shelgon evolves into the monstrously powerful Salamence at Level 50, which is near the end of the game. Its Pokédex entries establish that a Magikarp-Power evolution is just as joyful InUniverse; Bagon's long-lasting desire of wanting to fly leads to an absolute HellYesMoment when it finally evolves into a Salamence.
* Aron is a Steel/Rock type who has lousy stats in everything except Attack and Defense. It has a 70 in attack and 100 defense, which is further bolstered by the Steel-type's absurd number of resistances. However, these two stats account for over half of its base stat total. At Level 32 it evolves into Lairon, which has the 11th best Defense stat in Gen III at 140 and an attack stat of 90. However, its other stats aren't much better than Aron's and not helping matters is that most Pokemon reach their final evolution around Level 32. At Level 42, which is around the level of the penultimate gym, Lairon evolves into Aggron, which has the absolutely ''ludicrous'' defense stat of 180.

* Axew is a fairly unassuming Dragon pokemon with a fairly average (for unevolved Pokemon) base stat total of 320. However, it doesn't evolve into Fraxure until ''level 38'', and at that point it probably has lower stats than most other things you can have at that level, since most Pokemon should be fully evolved by then. However, at Level 48 it evolves into Haxorus, which on top of being a LightningBruiser, is the only Pokemon in the Unova Dex that can learn both Outrage ''and'' Dragon Dance. Mind you, in the previous generation this by itself was enough to get Salamence [[GameBreaker banned to Ubers]].

* Honedge has very high ATK and DEF for the time you get it, but it's very slow and has low special defense and HP, meaning it will struggle against most Pokemon with a high special attack. And even its high ATK is off-set by its lackluster movepool, relying on Fury Cutter spam as its main source of damage unless you managed to get the Shadow Claw TM in Glittering Cave. It also doesn't evolve until Level 35, and even then Doublade doesn't do much to remove its vulnerability to special attacks. However, if you manage to get your hands on a Dusk Stone, you can evolve it into Aegislash, which can pivot between being a GlassCannon and a StoneWall on a dime.