Which Pokemon Families Were Used The Most By Important NPCs?

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
I found a mistake; you have Gothitelle listed as used by Bianca in the PWT, but I am unable to find which team it is used on.
Scroll to the very bottom of this page. Bianca's article on Bulbapedia seems to be screwed up rn for some reason, is that where you tried to look?
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
In case you're curious, if all the evil team usage were to be omitted for whatever reason Crobat would be at 10 uses (Koga, Agatha, Falkner, Janine, Silver, Spenser, Marley, Roxie, Kahili and Gladion) which is still really good even for Gen 1 standards, for reference that's more usage than Charizard and the same as Machamp and Raichu
 
In case you're curious, if all the evil team usage were to be omitted for whatever reason Crobat would be at 10 uses (Koga, Agatha, Falkner, Janine, Silver, Spenser, Marley, Roxie, Kahili and Gladion) which is still really good even for Gen 1 standards, for reference that's more usage than Charizard and the same as Machamp and Raichu
It might have slightly helped that up until Galar, I think the Zubat line was one of only three families to have appeared in every regional dex. Discounting BW1 of course. The other two lines were Magnemite and Psyduck if I recall.
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
When did Falkner use the Zubat line?
B2W2 Type Expert Tournament. Though does feel a bit odd they wouldn't give him a Skarmory or Pelipper. In addition of not being a bird, it's also a Pokemon usually associated with Janine* (though her signature mon is Venomoth), hmm...

* Okay, it's also associated with Koga and, unlike Janine, is his strongest mon when you battle him. Still, Koga is Janine's father whom Falkner has arguments with Janine about whose father is stronger, so you'd think he would purposely skip over training a Pokemon usually associated with them.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
B2W2 Type Expert Tournament. Though does feel a bit odd they wouldn't give him a Skarmory or Pelipper. In addition of not being a bird, it's also a Pokemon usually associated with Janine* (though her signature mon is Venomoth), hmm...

* Okay, it's also associated with Koga and, unlike Janine, is his strongest mon when you battle him. Still, Koga is Janine's father whom Falkner has arguments with Janine about whose father is stronger, so you'd think he would purposely skip over training a Pokemon usually associated with them.
Falkner's training a Crobat because he secretly has feelings for Janine and consciously or otherwise wants to be like her. That was always the impression I got from their interactions in HGSS, anyway. Their whole vibe is that stock couple you get in almost every long-running series who bicker and snap at each other constantly but it's because they're sOuLMaTEs
 

Pikachu315111

Ranting & Raving!
is a Community Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributor
Falkner's training a Crobat because he secretly has feelings for Janine and consciously or otherwise wants to be like her. That was always the impression I got from their interactions in HGSS, anyway. Their whole vibe is that stock couple you get in almost every long-running series who bicker and snap at each other constantly but it's because they're sOuLMaTEs
They definitely feel to have that sort of relationship, don't they? I've come up with a fun scenario in my head where, when they finally introduce the first Poison-type bird Pokemon, there would be a side quest where we help out a young kid try to catch two to give them to his parents; and whether through implication or outright stating it, the kid's parents are revealed to be Falkner and Janine.

Of course that's all fanfic, while the games do always sort of push opposite gender rivals/friends to have closer feelings it could also be simply a case of puppy love/crush. Oak and Agatha were rivals years ago, Agatha even said Oak was handsome back in his youthful days, but obviously the two never got together due to their viewpoints being too different.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
They definitely feel to have that sort of relationship, don't they? I've come up with a fun scenario in my head where, when they finally introduce the first Poison-type bird Pokemon, there would be a side quest where we help out a young kid try to catch two to give them to his parents; and whether through implication or outright stating it, the kid's parents are revealed to be Falkner and Janine.
Oh that's quite cute, I could get on board with that. They could even call the kid "Charine" if it's a girl as a fun shoutout to FRLG.

Of course that's all fanfic, while the games do always sort of push opposite gender rivals/friends to have closer feelings it could also be simply a case of puppy love/crush. Oak and Agatha were rivals years ago, Agatha even said Oak was handsome back in his youthful days, but obviously the two never got together due to their viewpoints being too different.
Yeah, that one's definitely a "what could have been" sort of vibe.
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
BDSP datamines are out, and there's new stuff for the spreadsheet along with it! The game's not officially out so enjoy the info spoiler-tagged.

All of the following are from postgame rematches
-Armaldo used by Roark
-Sunflora used by Gardenia, moving it out of No-Use Blunders
-Heracross used by Maylene
-Politoed, Kingdra and Huntail used by Crasher Wake
-Froslass used by Fantina
-Jynx used by Candice
-Empoleon used by Byron
-Pelipper used by Volkner
-Flygon used by Aaron
-Nidoking and Mamoswine used by Bertha
-Ninetales and Arcanine used by Flint
-Slowbro used by Lucian
-Porygon-Z used by Cynthia
-Oh yeah I'm also adding Mai's Munchlax from the Legends promo material cuz why not lol

There are some other teams led by Sinnoh starters but atm it can't be identified who they belong to 100% (although some of them are likely Lucas/Dawn)
 
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bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
Falkner's training a Crobat because he secretly has feelings for Janine and consciously or otherwise wants to be like her. That was always the impression I got from their interactions in HGSS, anyway. Their whole vibe is that stock couple you get in almost every long-running series who bicker and snap at each other constantly but it's because they're sOuLMaTEs
Giving a quick shoutout to Yung Dramp's previous post possibly reviving this thread (who knows?), can I just say that FINALLY, I've found someone else who supports this idea. I can't remember which thread(s) I posted about this ship in that one time, but long story short, if these Gym Leaders have access to phone calls, then why go through the effort of not one, but both of them sneaking off to meet up in a very specific and very secluded part of a department store in a whole other region that Falkner doesn't live in? Sure, he could have just flown there to Kanto on one of his many bird Pokémon, but my question here is "what's so important that it can't be talked about over the phone?" Having a debate on whose father is cooler doesn't exactly sound like a convincing cover-up story... the fact that they weren't shown together again in any of those Pokémon Masters events (at least, not that I'm aware of) also seems like a suspicious way to hide something. Wouldn't be the first time a spin-off endorsed a ship pair.

Now then, onto the actual purpose of this thread. I can think of plenty off the top of my head, My quoted post shown above basically already mentioned the Zubat line by virtue of other people doing it for me,, but I can think of a few others off the top of my head too. The Magnemite family is one that instantly comes to mind, having been used by so, so many Electric and/or Steel-Type specialists over the years, and the Dratini family has also been used by a lot of Trainers, although to be fair some of the earlier instances of this were likely due to having limited options at the time. Clair and Lance are obviously the main ones, but Iris (if the anime counts for anything, and by extension Ash in Journeys) has also used one, as has Alder's grandson Benga in the White Treehollow. From what I can tell, every major Trainer who has had access to Dratini has used the family at least once somewhere in the games and/or in other Pokémon media. Heck, even the OG Pokémon Ranger game uses some Dragonite as a tranzit (how do you spell this word lol) system of all things owned by the Ranger Bases's higher-ups.

:bw/zubat: :bw/magnemite: :bw/dratini:
 
BDSP datamines are out, and there's new stuff for the spreadsheet along with it! The game's not officially out so enjoy the info spoiler-tagged.

All of the following are from postgame rematches
-Armaldo used by Roark
-Sunflora used by Gardenia, moving it out of No-Use Blunders
-Heracross used by Maylene
-Politoed, Kingdra and Huntail used by Crasher Wake
-Froslass used by Fantina
-Jynx used by Candice
-Empoleon used by Byron
-Pelipper used by Volkner
-Flygon used by Aaron
-Nidoking and Mamoswine used by Bertha
-Ninetales and Arcanine used by Flint
-Slowbro used by Lucian
-Porygon-Z used by Cynthia
-Oh yeah I'm also adding Mai's Munchlax from the Legends promo material cuz why not lol

There are some other teams led by Sinnoh starters but atm it can't be identified who they belong to 100% (although some of them are likely Lucas/Dawn)
I believe if Dawno/Lucas are the missing Trainers all Wormadam forms+Mothim leave the no use list:-)
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Excuse the double post, but as it turns out there might actually be one more stone left unturned...

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeLeaks/comments/qrp59a
"After 49 winning streaks, you can access 'Master Class'.
Master Class have 10 ranks; When you get a seven-win streak, your rank will go up by one. On the other hand, if you lose seven times in a row, your rank will go down by one.
And each ranks exists definite Master Trainer (not random).
Based on the order of the text data, the Trainer order is
Single: Roark - Gardenia - Maylene - Byron - Candice - Fantina - Crasher Wake - Volkner - Cynthia - Palmer
Double: Roark&Byron - Mira&Cheryl - Fantina&Gardenia - Saturn&Jupiter - Candice&Maylene - Riley&Marley - Buck&Bertha - Flint&Volkner - Mars&Cyrus - Barry&Palmer
You can check text data: Archive-5583\bdsp_parses\message\language\language_dp_scenario3.txt - line after no.1020"

Looks like we got a Battle Tree clone that even involves trainers not in the standard rematches (mainly stat trainers and Galactic personnel), which potentially means even more newcomers to log in. Anybody got a list of their usable Pokemon pools? If not, I would appreciate if this thread could be bumped to notify me about when that info comes out.
 

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Will you give it a try with the new Battle Tower sets?
Yes, and this time with a changelog cuz some of these need to be seen to be believed

Data used: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...d8tSXTQNf6forsJTiNsMHiCEnc/edit#gid=878467551

Roark
Slowbro, Salamence, Lunatone (left One Use Wonders), Torkoal

Gardenia
Cradily, Rotom-Mow, Milotic, Ninetales, Venusaur, Shiftry

Maylene
Blaziken, Empoleon, Dragonite

Crasher Wake
Swampert, Suicune, Armaldo, Pelipper, Scizor

Fantina
Shedinja, Crawdaunt, Sableye, Dragonite

Byron
Moltres, Metagross (now the most used Hoenn mon!), Scizor, Pelipper, Heatran (left One Use Wonders)

Candice
Regice, Cloyster, Heatran, Lapras, Venusaur, Articuno

Volkner
Zapdos, Gyarados, Swampert


Bertha
Steelix, Donphan (left No Use Blunders)

Flint
Blaziken, Rotom-Heat, Entei


Cheryl
Umbreon, Porygon-Z, Latios (I know those last 2 look like Mira mons but Cheryl actually uses them when allied with u in DPPt facilities so it's correct)

Mira
Zapdos, Gardevoir

Riley
Garchomp

Marley
Aerodactyl, Starmie

Buck
Cresselia (left One Use Wonders), Regirock


Mars
Raichu, Espeon, Togekiss

Jupiter
Absol, Sableye, Sharpedo, Tyranitar

Saturn
Nidoking, Skuntank, Gengar

Cyrus
Salamence (tied with Metagross for most used Hoenn mon!), Entei, Rotom-Heat


Unless there's a surprise DLC this is the end of the BDSP update, and holy crap did this game shatter my expectations. I anticipated a middling expansion, maybe 5 new mons across the entire thing. What we instead got between the rematches, extra fights and the Battle Tower must be among the wildest and largest roster of new Pokemon for major trainers ever, probably on par with a brand new release. In this massive pile we got a lithany of off-typers for Gym Leaders, new fights with characters never anticipated like Lucas/Dawn and Team Galactic rematches, and several Pokemon moving into the Master List or One Use Wonders. Holy hell did ILCA's boss designers put in the work.
 
I'm really surprised that Golduck is used by so few trainers. It is one of three mons along with Magnemite and Zubat that appears in every region, but they are the 2 most used mons while Golduck has only 2 uses. I wonder why that is.

Another thing that surprised me is the difference between Snorunt's 2 evolutions, Glalie and Froslass. Glalie is used by 3 trainers while Froslass is used by a whopping 10! Poor Glalie was completely overshadowed.

Also it's hilarious that Octillery is only used by 1 trainer and it's not even a Water-type specialist, it's freaking Volkner.
 
I'm really surprised that Golduck is used by so few trainers. It is one of three mons along with Magnemite and Zubat that appears in every region, but they are the 2 most used mons while Golduck has only 2 uses. I wonder why that is.

Another thing that surprised me is the difference between Snorunt's 2 evolutions, Glalie and Froslass. Glalie is used by 3 trainers while Froslass is used by a whopping 10! Poor Glalie was completely overshadowed.

Also it's hilarious that Octillery is only used by 1 trainer and it's not even a Water-type specialist, it's freaking Volkner.
Still my biggest shock so far is that no one used Kingler. What makes it worse is the fact he even got a G-max form just to not be used by anyone...

I'm thinking about a SwSh Run when I use the no-used Galar Mons and G-max Kingler as it's honorable leader.

The Team might be quite solid:
Greedunt (can be later swapped for Indeene)
Orbeetle (still don't get why Avery did not get one, same for Klara and Toxtricity...)
Thievul (why Piers or Marnie does not use it?)
by first Gym I would have 3 Pokemon, right?
Kingler (if I would Complete IoA quest both Orbeetle and Kingler can G-max before league, correct?
The question is which 2 fossils would work best with the rest?

BTW, also considering Galarian forms, which were not used? Stunfisk? Anyone else?

Yung Dramps did you consider separating Regional forms from stardand ones on your sheet?:-)
 
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QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
I'm really surprised that Golduck is used by so few trainers. It is one of three mons along with Magnemite and Zubat that appears in every region, but they are the 2 most used mons while Golduck has only 2 uses. I wonder why that is.
Suffers from being a Water-type, I guess. It doesn't have much of a niche; Cloud Nine is a cool ability that only Psyduck and Golduck get as a standard ability, but it's more of a hindrance on monotype teams because it actively works against them. Water-type trainers generally want to use Rain Dance, and for any of the non-Water trainers who might plausibly find a use for Golduck (like Glacia) it doesn't really benefit them to negate their weather - sure, negating Hail means that Golduck isn't damaged by it, neither is the opponent, so you're better off using an actual Ice-type.

There's just pretty much always a better choice for what Golduck can do. Better Pokemon have Damp (which isn't great anyway) and Swift Swim, and better Pokemon can use all the cool options Golduck gets via breeding like Cross Chop. Crasher Wake for instance already has a pure Water-type (his signature, Floatzel) and uses Gyarados and Quagsire to cover the usual Water weaknesses. Were Golduck Water/Psychic it'd have very slightly more of a niche, especially in later generations.

It's a pity because I'm quite fond of it but there's rarely a reason to use it. For both of the trainers who use it it's more because of a lack of other options than because it particularly suits their teams.
 

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