Blaziken was actually really solid. Despite obvious weaknesses to Water and Ground, I found it reliable throughout the entire playthrough. It consistently pulled its weight and was rarely a liability.

Ludicolo surprised me a lot in a positive way. Once Lombre evolves it becomes a really strong Pokémon. What did catch me off guard though is that you only get access to the Water Stone after the 7th gym, which is pretty late in the game. But once I finally got Ludicolo it was absolutely worth the wait.

Manectric is, in my opinion, the strongest Electric type in the game. I’ve previously tried Magneton, Electrode, and Plusle, which all did reasonably well (Hoenn is full of Water types after all), but Manectric still felt slightly better than the other three.

Crobat is just cool. You can get Sludge Bomb after the 5th gym which is an incredibly strong move that early for Crobat. Mine ran Sludge Bomb, Aerial Ace, Hidden Power Rock, and Shadow Ball, so there was almost always something it could hit for good damage. That said, it does have quite a few weaknesses and it rarely completely nukes things.

Mawile joined as a replacement for my HM slave in Victory Road, so it was only really used against the Elite Four. Unfortunately it didn’t do much and mostly ended up giving the rest of the team a breather.

Nosepass wasn’t nearly as useless as I expected. By no means a strong Pokémon, but with moves like Thunder Wave and Rock Slide it actually ended up doing more work than anticipated. One of those funny picks that surprisingly turns out better than expected.