Hidden powerhouses. As in Bidoof and Magikarp and all that stuff. They absolutely suck at first, but when you finally evolve it, you get an extremely powerful Pokémon. What are your opinions on them?

Discuss.

Bibarels a power house? xD
Well I suppose with his ability and proper set up hes good. I dunno, although there pretty dang strong for in game purposes, I don't think its worth going through half the storyline with a magikarp when you can catch gyarados later on. I prefer just waiting until there stronger forms are available. :>

I sort of like these Pokemon, because it encourages trainers to level up weaker Pokemon.

What's really annoying is Feebas, who is not only this, BUT COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND.

If you raise Bibarel in a good way, it can be a power-house, not only in-game, but also competitively. With its ability and the great move pool it got, it can be useful even in the OU tier. I personally like Bibarel.

I say they're pretty good. Especially with dragon types (and Tyranitar) That trapinch SUCKS but when you evolve him, the other guy is screwed.

I love the challenge of making "hidden powerhouses". For example, Pachirisu--that's something you wouldn't normally see, I'm pretty sure. It has pud offensive stats, so throw in a Super Fang; Light Screen to back up an incoming Sp. Defensively-challenged teammate, Thunder Wave for a speed-challenged teammate, and U-turn for scouting purposes. I've never actually tried it in a battle, but it looks good on paper (to my untrained eye).

Hm... Would Metagross count? The thing is freakin' beast, but at first it (Beldum) can only use Take Down.

Swinub aren't very good. But with a bit of training and teaching, it evolves into Mamoswine, who aided me in knocking out Red's lvl 88 Pikachu in SS.

Alakazam is a very nice hidden powerhouse! Er, that is back in Gen. 1. Back then you could only find Abra with Teleport, so getting Alakazam was a challenge. Then, you had to find someone to trade and trade back with using those funky Gameboy cables. The next generations kinda fixed that though, by adding wild Kadabra and Wi-Fi making trading easier. :<

But Alakazam can still be considered a very good hidden powerhouse!

More so than Bibarel, at least.

I consider Tropius a powerhouse for odd reasons. It is, isn't it?

Well, in honesty, all first-stage Pokemon suck (Not including those without an evolution line). The only time you ever use them is for the first 5 hours or so of the game, because by then they've evolved. Some first-stage Pokemon suck but evolve into beasts (Like Magikarp>Gyarados), while some first-stage Pokemon suck and evolve into Pokemon that suck (Like Skitty>Delcatty). My opinion is:
Get the ones that evolve in to good ones, leave the ones that suck.