You’d be surprised at just how many people catch Pokémon based on how the things look. You have players catching those of a certain type, or Pokémon that look cute or Pokémon that look tough. All of it’s based on their appearance. While some are simply interested in catching them all, others are out to get the strongest they can possibly snag. There are two types of Pokémon trainers, those who catch Pokémon without knowing much about them and those who do their research. In regards to the former, it’s easy to get tricked by a Pokémon’s appearance and think you’ve snagged a strong companion when in reality you’ve been duped.

Those trainers that do take the time to research and think of what kind of Pokémon they should be using often look to its stats and then its nature along with its ability. These things, along with the number of weaknesses a given Pokémon has, do wonders in figuring out just how useful it is. Remember, just because a Pokémon is huge and looks to be tough, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually strong. There are plenty of examples of this so let’s look at 20 Pokémon who seem really strong...but are actually useless.

20 Purugly

When you look at a Purugly, strong or tough might not be the first thing you think of. Cranky or ugly, on the other hand, fit the bill. Still, the little guy seems – going by its demeanor – like it could hold its own in a fight. Well, you’d be wrong about that one. Though it has great speed, Purugly is pretty middle of the road in just about everything else. Everything from its attack, defense, to HP and specials is pretty mediocre and isn’t really all that noteworthy. Not that Purugly is the worst Pokémon in the series, but it definitely isn’t really helping you win any battles. Ultimately it’s better to keep this guy in the PC, or not even catch it at all.

19 Watchog

At first glance, Watchog might actually be a little intimidating given its unnaturally rigid posture. It might seem to be a scary little Pokémon, but let’s be clear about this: Watchog isn’t anything special and is actually kind of a letdown. Right off the bat, its only noticeable stats is its speed and attack, which is great for most Pokémon, but doesn’t really benefit you all that much if your Pokémon doesn’t inflict that much damage. Despite being its highest stat, Watchog doesn’t learn that many great physical moves and is, in fact, better off learning some status moves instead – effectively making this Pokémon useless in most cases.

18 Cloyster

As a kid, you must’ve thought Cloyster’s design was pretty cool. It still kind of does look pretty bad ass, but the charm has sort of worn off as the years have passed by. Once you look past the exterior, however, Cloyster isn’t much to gawk at as a Pokémon. The only prevalent stat here is its defense which is pretty impressive. But everything else is actually very subpar and makes Cloyster a non-option in battle. Its base HP is actually very low which kind of takes away from it having such high defense. You’d need to EV train it in order to remedy this and actually make it a decent Pokémon for your party. If you were to train it normally though, it’d be pretty useless.

17 Beedrill

We tend to confuse fierce looking Pokémon for strong ones all the time. It’s a pretty common misconception that most of us make as kids and it kind of sticks with us going forward. This is another classic case of that, though you wouldn’t think so many people would make the mistake seeing as Beedrill is a bug-type. But it happens nonetheless. It got a minor stat boost after Gen V that didn’t really make a difference either way. Its stats are mediocre whichever way you look at it. It has a terrible defense and decent attack, which makes it a glass cannon kind of Pokémon, though its speed stat is pretty mediocre as well. The only thing that saves it is its Mega Evolution.

16 Snover

Certain Pokémon seem like they’d be a good pick early on in the game, but quickly show that they’re holding your party back rather than helping you succeed. Snover might look like an interesting pickup initially due to its dual typing of grass and ice, but if you did a quick check online, you’d see that it’s actually pretty terrible in all respects. Its stats are just awful, with it not really excelling in anything and providing no real advantages for battle. Especially since it has a whopping seven type weaknesses you’d have to deal with. Your opponent could quite literally have an entire party that could one shot you. That puts you at a significant disadvantage.

15 Pinsir

It often happens with Pokémon games that one Pokémon will become obsolete with the introduction of another similar monster in a new generation. Pinsir has really good attack and defense, but has some pretty subpar HP, meaning that if you wanted to incorporate it into your party you’d really need to increase that with some EV training. But Gen II offered players a much better alternative in Heracross, which pretty much made Pinsir obsolete. Though you could look at its Mega Evolution and think that it’s still a viable Pokémon to have in your party, but then again Heracross also has a Mega Evolved form which just makes it all the better choice.

14 Slaking

When you look at Slaking you think of one thing, a tank. It’s a pretty tough Pokémon to go through and can be really frustrating to deal with in battle. Tanks always are, and a properly trained one can be an absolute nightmare to try and take out. Its defense isn’t its only great stat, however, its attack, speed, and HP are also absolutely fantastic and really round it out. So why is it on this list? Well, as good as a Pokémon’s stats may be, its abilities can absolutely ruin it. Truant is a debilitating ability that basically makes a Pokémon skip its every other turn. It kind of makes sense given Slaking’s appearance, but man is it just terrible.

13 Meganium

We tend to picture starters as these great Pokémon and don’t really consider just how bad they can be given that they’re what we begin our journey with. Among the multitude of starters out there there’s one that stands out as the absolute worse you could’ve ended up with. Meganium is Chikorita’s final evolution and despite being so, has some pretty mediocre stats – almost as bad as or worse than certain mediocre Pokémon in their first forms. It has good defense and special defense, but aside from that doesn’t really pack much of a punch and can’t really do anything for you on the offensive. Not really a tank, and a mediocre attacker, Meganuim is sadly a pretty awful Pokémon.

12 Diggersby

The Pokémon games have given us some pretty ridiculous designs over the years. As the games have gone on, they’ve turned out some damn well questionable Pokémon, some that are laughably strange, and some that just seemed like lazy design. But Diggersby has to take the cake. It’s like a little roided out rabbit with third and fourth arms as ears. When you first lay eyes on it, it makes you think that it might actually be pretty strong. But nope, Diggersby is as mediocre as you can get. Its best stat is its HP, and following that is its special and normal defense, but that’s nothing to gawk at. At the end of the day, it’s just another useless Pokémon.

11 Aegislash

You might be wondering why a Pokémon that was once a mainstay on the competitive circuit finds its way onto this list. Well, this is another case of a Pokémon’s ability hurting it in the long run. Aegislash was initially thought to be very useful due to its ability to switch between its Shield and Blade forms. It starts off in its shield form, but later on changes to its attack form when using a physical or special attack. As both names suggest, its defensive stats are boosted in the shield form and its attack stats are boosted in the blade form. But here’s where the problem lies, if it doesn’t manage to finish you off with one shot, it will most likely take a huge amount of damage. This makes it a very risky play.

10 Amoonguss

This is one of the stupider looking Pokémon on this list. Well, not just stupid, but downright unimaginative you could say. Amoonguss looks like something you don’t want to run into at night, and that initially might give you the idea that this Pokémon isn’t one that shouldn’t be messed with. But beyond its menacing exterior is a pretty normal and often useless Pokémon. Its awful speed stat aside, Amoonguss isn’t even strong enough in defense to be considered a tank, as both its defense and special defense stats aren’t all that high and are pretty middle of the road. It really isn’t worth the effort in catching and raising. Four different type weaknesses added in there make this Pokémon deceptively bad.

9 Feebas

This is a case of a Pokémon being overvalued due to how good its evolution is. If you were looking for a new Pokémon to catch and just so happened to run into a Feebas with an empty slot in your party, then you might think that it would be a great choice should you lack a water-type. But aside from its speed stat, Feebas is utterly useless, boasting some terrible stats. Milotic is an all around great Pokémon for you to have, but its base form is another story entirely. Attack, defense, and HP are all terrible with Feebas. You’d really have to have a lot of patience in order to really train it and get through battles on a regular basis with it.

8 Exeggutor

Exeggutor is one of Gen I’s most fearsome looking Pokémon, but don’t be fooled – it isn’t as great as it seems or looks to be. Let’s start off with its stats. They’re not bad; in fact, they’re pretty decent. What jumps out here is its incredible special attack stat, which really makes it a force to be reckoned with Leaf Storm. While its attack is also great, and it does learn a good deal more physical attacks, it would really benefit from learning some more special attacks. It’s low speed though, will more often than not have you attacking second every time, which can be pretty debilitating for one reason — it has seven weaknesses. When you add the two together, using an Exeggutor can put you at a huge disadvantage.

7 Unknown

As a kid, when you were first introduced to the Unknown, they must’ve seemed pretty darn strong. Not necessarily due to any menacing physical traits, but because if how mysterious they looked. It always seemed like there was something more to them. With so many variants and so little known about them, it was something of a great mystery we tasked ourselves with figuring out while playing through the games. But imagine the surprise and disappointment in us all when we found out that they were pretty useless all along. Their stats are terrible, and aside from learning Hidden Power, they serve no real purpose outside of some plot points. They’re terrible in every conceivable way.

6 Tyranitar

This one might shock some of you but bear with it for a moment. We’ve looked at plenty of weak Pokémon and plenty of them seemed strong from the get go. While a lot of those that we’ve previously covered only looked strong, Tyranitar is admittedly a pretty strong Pokémon. We’re not even going to count its mega evolution in that statement. It has great all around stats and aside from its subpar speed is a very solid choice in battle. So why is it on this list? Easy, it has seven different weaknesses. It might seem unfair for this to be the only reason that it’s on here, but that’s kind of a debilitating number when you think of it. Enemies can pount you into the ground like NOTHING.

5 Deoxys (Normal Forme)

We often hold legendaries in high regard, despite them being pretty much banned from competitive use and most of us leaving them in our PC’s rather than our main party. As you’ll see later on in this list, there are a couple of legendaries in the Pokémon universe that really are good for nothing. Deoxys is one of those – though only in its Normal Forme of course. Its stats are deceptive, that’s for sure. Even in its Normal Form, Deoxys is pretty loaded, with incredible speed and special and regular attack stats. But, if it doesn’t wipe the enemy out in one shot, then it’s pretty much done for as it has absolutely awful defensive stats. In the end, it’s just another glass cannon.

4 Hariyama

Well, now this Pokémon surely looks tough, but have you ever used a Hariyama in battle with anyone aside from an NPC? This fearsome Pokémon first introduced in Gen III surely fooled a good deal of trainers with its towering appearance and tough exterior, but once you look at its stats, then you’ll soon find its most glaring flaw. Both attack and HP are phenomenal, a really promising start. But then you look at its speed which is subpar, its special attack which is laughably low and its defense and special defense which – despite its high HP – are incredibly detrimental to its longevity in battle. It might not look like it, but Hariyama is also just another glass cannon, though it looks like it could tank things out it’s really too weak to do so.

3 Abomasnow

Again, we come across a Pokémon with a mega evolution, but once again, we’re going to ignore that though even if we did take that into account, the problem with Abomasnow would still be there. Abomasnow certainly seems tough and it really is a frightening and intimidating Pokémon to look at, but once again a quick look to its stats will show you all you need to know about it. Nothing really jumps out at you, though it’s pretty well rounded out for the most part, its speed and defense are pretty lacking. But Abomasnow has what several other otherwise strong Pokémon on this list have and that’s a ridiculous seven weaknesses it has to combat. Do whatever you want, go into its mega evolved form or whatever, you can’t make it through with those many weaknesses stacked against you.

2 Regigigas

When it comes to legendary Pokémon. we often seem to assume that they’re automatically these massively powerful entities. While that’s true for some, and while the games’ lore would have us believe that more often than not, it doesn’t necessarily apply to every legendary. Although a tad odd looking, Regigigas dies have some pretty fearsome stats. Though it all looks impressive at face value you soon realize that this Pokémon isn’t as great as it looks to be as its ability, Slow Start, makes it pretty much useless for the first five turns of a given battle. Its attack and speed stats halve during this time, and so you effectively get a slow, weak legendary that doesn’t pack much of a punch. What’s worse is that if you take it out of battle and put it back in, the whole process resets.

1 Shuckle

It’s become something of a joke within the Pokémon community over the years, but while not physically intimidating Shuckle has a reputation as being one of the more challenging Pokémon in the series to knock down due to its ridiculously high defense and special defense stats. While it’s certainly impressive upon first glance, this little guy is pretty terribly well-rounded. For a Pokémon with such high defensive stats, it has terrible HP, as well as some terrible attack and special attack. As if that wasn’t bad enough, its speed is among the worst in the series. You might be able to fend enemies off for a while but you’d need a multitude of things to go right in order to buff Shuckle’s stats enough so that it could do some actual damage.